'I'm alive?' He opened his eyes, lying on the funky smelling floor.
He didn't feel any pain at all, no soreness, not even a slight ache. In fact he felt amazing with the moonlight covering him from the window. But that's not all, he was immediately overwhelmed from all sources.
The smell was worse than when he walked in, it was almsot vomit inducing.
He could see every scratch, imperfection, and rotting hole on the ceiling.
He could even feel the smallest vibrations on the weak wooden floor.
He could hear someone. They were close. In the doorway close. He could hear the man's rustling clothes and his quiet breathes.
Masaaki shot up to his feet in a blur and backpeddled a few paces away from the door. He locked eyes with what now appears to be a homeless man. After a moment of eye contact the man just walked back down the hallway.
Once the man stepped out of sight I immediately activated my quirk and watched him slowly walk down the steps and out onto the street. Only when he knew the man was a few houses down did he relax. He deactivated his quirk, his shoulders loosened and his fists opened to reveal how tight he was balling them. His knuckles white and his hand shaking. He reached to the back of his head to a spot that felt wet, probably the festering trash juice all over the floor. He pulled his hand from the back of his head to discover that there was blood on his palm, mixed with the vile substances that his head landed in.
'All that stressing over a frail homeless man?' He was probably starving, weak, and old. I could have easily fended him off if he attacked. Especially now with this power boost he was still feeling under the moons gaze. He felt strong. He felt unbeatable. His senses were enhanced to a point of almost overloading his mind.
He reactivated his quirk and gazed through the wall and saw thousands of souls. He could see much further than before, maybe even 2 kilometers. He followed someone walking on the street with his gaze. Before now a living person's soul was so bright it was hard to see the finer details of their soul, but now he could see everything. He could even vaguely sense the souls behind him that he wasn't looking at.
Why? How? His old self looked like a baby compared to himself now.
*BZZT-BZZT*
His phone vibrated in his pocket. Shit, mom's gonna rip me apart when I get home. He checked the time, he was only out for maybe 10 minutes. It was still 11:13 and he had maybe an hour walk home. That bitch shiba lured me here and left when I went unconscious.
He bent down and grabbed his bag, and began the slow walk home. But before long an idea popped into his head.
—————
As he climbed up the side of a building he seriously rethought the dumb idea.
'Ive never done any parkour in my life and now im trying to get all the way home by roofhopping? Hell yeah I am.'
Once at the top he looked in the direction leading home and saw that he should be able to jump across the roofs to get home.
His first step shot him forward very fast, too fast. He tried to stop himself by putting his other foot down but his foot shot out from under him. He skidded and rolled to the edge until his back hit the small ledge keeping him on the roof.
Why did I think I could do that? I'm not used to this power at all and I thought I could parkour across the roofs of tokyo? He got up and dusted himself off. He looked over the edge.
'Could I just hop down there?' He has super strength now. He shouldn't break anything if he does.
He didnt want to test that just yet, instead opting to climb down.
—————
As he neared his house he looked down at his phone and saw it was almost 1:00. He could see his mom with a nervous expression waiting just inside the door. The detail that his quirk can now see still amazing him after hours of it being boosted.
As he walked up the steps to his floor he heard the door at the bottom of the stairs open and someone began walking up the stairs behind him. He looked down through the concrete staircase with his quirk and saw it was his dad coming home from work. Not good, he might be to tired to question it but he will notice how late im coming home.
He shot up the stairs and put his key in the door, being extra careful to not break it with his newly found strength and unlocked the door. The door creaked open slowly and he saw his mom standing right in front of the door. Her face twisted with anger when she saw me walk in, but I saw how worried she looked while I was walking up.
"YOU IDIOT! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! WHY DIDNT YOU ANSWER YOUR PHONE!?"
Her screams were loud and with his now enhanced ears . He covered his ears until she quieted down. The reason she got quiet was because my father was now behind me in the door frame.
"What did you do now?" After kicking his shoes off he walked over to the table and tiredly plopped into a chair. He loosened his tie and undid some buttons on his suit jacket.
"He got home 30 seconds before you did. Didn't answer my calls or texts to tell me where hes been either." She huffed and crossed her arms.
"Really? Why?" He looked genuinely confused as to why a loner kid like me would be out this late.
"I got lost?"
"Even you aren't that stupid try again." His mom said
"I was at a friends house."
"I called Makotos house, you weren't there."
"I got led into a homeless camp and attacked."
"Really? Thats the best you got?" She looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"I was at a girls house."
"The homeless one is easier to believe than that."
'Ouch' not that he was looking for romance.
My father looked back and forth between the two of us. He clearly had a long day and wanted to sleep.
"Enough, just tell the truth son."
"I did, in one of those answers was the truth." My mother face palmed.
"Your grounded, and answer your phone or you won't have it any more." My father then got up and went to his and my mothers bedroom to sleep, leaving me alone with my mother who was not pleased with me.
"I'm so-"
*SMACK*
She slapped him pretty hard, but he didnt even flinch. He knew it was coming, and stood perfectly still while it happened. She then surprised him with a hug.
"I was so worried, don't do that ever again."
"O-okay."
"Now go to your room you're still grounded." The moment ended on a sour note as she walked into her bedroom leaving him standing there.
'Went better than expected.' He shut and locked the door, then moved to his room and grabbed some clothes not covered in trash juice and moved over to the bathroom to shower.
After the quick shower he got dressed and grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste. When he squeezed the tube it exploded in his hand.
'I really got to get my strength under control. I can't go around destroying my apartment.'
Wiping some of the paste on the bristles and brushing his teeth he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked thinner, like his fat disappeared. He spit out the remaining toothpaste and went to his room.
As he sat on his bed he realized he wasn't tired. He didnt sleep much before, insomnia. Than a thought surfaced, where is the mystery man?
His eyes widen as he feels his quirk activate by itself. Standing tall in front of him was the soul he was searching for.
"Can't sleep?"
"Whats your name?"
"Konshu."
"What kinda name is that?"
"An Egyptian one." He looked me over before speaking.
"Ive given you my quirk, what are you going to do now?"
"Why? I was a weak kid, you could've given it to anyone."
"I have searched the whole world for 50 years looking for the right person. I knew instantly when I saw you and gazed into your soul, that you were the person I was looking for. So I soul bonded with you."
"Soul bond?!" He yelled but got quiet after, he didnt want to wake his already mad parents.
"Why would you soul bond with me?!" He whispered.
"Because the moon is everlasting, and it's power dying with me is unacceptable. Your quirk just made it all the easier to do."
He squinted at that. That was probably the worst lie hes ever heard, his real intentions are unclear to me. For now at least.
"So what are you going to takeover my body or something?" He really didnt like this situation.
"No, we're just two souls inhabiting the same body. Since it's your body you have the most control, but I can still manipulate some things. That's why your quirk turned on, it was me. After all our quirks merged, we share the same quirk now. I think."
Not reassuring at all.
"Why did it hurt so much?" It was the worst pain he had ever experienced and hes died before.
"Because my quirk was integrating into yours, it altered your DNA. But you can feel it can't you? The power of the moon? The way every part of your body enhances when it's light touches your skin? It improves upon what you have, which is why your quirk got boosted as well. But you don't have much strength to boost. 1 times 5 is 5, but 8 times 5 is 40, just imagine how strong you can be. There isn't even a full moon tonight and you can feel the difference."
Sounds like hes trying to sell me on something even after forcing me into the situation. I do want to be a hero, who wouldnt. But then he would have to eait until graduation. If the only way to become a hero was a high school this world would be cooked, there are other ways to get a hero license thats just the easiest one. He can still do what a hero does. Be a vigilante, take justice into my own hands. He'll just be hated and be hounded by heroes and cops for the rest of his life. No biggie.
But if im gonna do either option I need to be stronger, and have actual martial skills. He's not dumb enough to try and fight killers and psychos with no fighting experience. The thought of even trying to fight off a hero with his miniscule amount of experience? Out the window, probably followed by his body if he did try.
"Can you train me?"
Konshu grinned at that, like he knew the outcome but still needed to hear it out loud.
"Since im dead it'll be a little harder but I can."
"What can you even teach?"
He put his transparent hand on his see through chin and thought for a moment.
"Boxing, judo, Kung fu, Karate, Krav maga, Silat, Savate, and Muay Thai. I know a few others but I'm not proficient enough to teach those."
I narrowed my eyes. 'Ive never even heard of like 3 of those before just now.'
"Well im going to teach them to you, if you know what it is or not."
"You can hear my thoughts?" That's really bad.
"No-" *phew* "- I just saw that stupid face you made when I said silat and knew you had no idea what I was talking about."
"What even is silat? Is it one of those martial arts that you see on TV that don't do anything but look kinda cool?"
"Silat is a family of martial arts that incorporates many types of blades."
"Woah, im not gonna be killing or cutting people up."
"Sure, I won't teach you that one... yet."
"I mean it, I won't be killing people. I'm not gonna end up like one of those sickos like that stendtal or whatever his name is on the news."
"Mmhmm, we'll start with boxing anyway. It's pretty easy compared to the others. It's also one of the ones I have the most experience with." Konshu smirked and looked upon the thinking kid. 'He's nieve, I thought more of him when I first saw him. His soul looked older, more mature. Maybe I made a grave mistake.'
Masaaki brought out his phone and started looking for a gym he could train at. He found one close by, should work just fine. Just gotta get the cash for it. For now there's some pull up bars and such in some parks he could use.
But in order to get any of that he has things to do. With a heavy sigh he pulled the homework from his bag and moved to the dinner table to do it. Konshu followed looking over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"Homework?"
"You should start your training right away!"
"I'm grounded, remember? I won't be able to go anywhere if i stay grounded. Can't exactly train inside either."
Konshu let out an irritated grunt at that, but with no way of forcing him to do something.
He then watched me do homework for a few hours and occasionally pointed at a question to tell me an answer. He only got a few right.
————
Since he couldn't sleep he cooked breakfast.
He didnt have school today, and he finished all his homework so he wasn't sure what he could do. He can't leave while hes grounded because the punishments would only get worse if he kept leaving. So he waited until his parents woke up to ask if he could do something.
His dad woke up first and walked out of their bedroom and saw me at the table with food on plates. I already ate mine and was watching the TV from here with the volume low.
"Trying to make up for your stupidity from last night? Too bad it won't be enough for your mother." He said as he poured a cup of coffee I already made. The face he made when he sipped it made sense. Ive never been a coffee drinker so im not the best at making it.
"Well I've got nothing left to do today so I thought I might do something useful."
"Nonsense, you probably have plenty of school work to do." He sat down and began to eat.
"Finished it." He pointed over his shoulder to the stack of papers on the table he hadn't put in his bag yet.
His father looked skeptical. He snatched the papers and flipped through it while he ate.
"How long did this take?" He looked up from the papers at him, a small bit of surprise on his face.
"Just about 3 hours."
His father looked at his watch and saw it was 5:43. He looked back at his son and scanned his face looking for signs of fatigue but couldnt find any. Hes no master at reading people.
"Yeah I couldnt sleep. Say could I have some money to sign up for a gym membership?"
"Ask your mother." His said as he stood up and walked to the fridge to take out his lunch.
'Damn it.' That was his best hope of getting the money he needed. He got up from the table and did all the chores his mom is going to have him do today as punishment.
As the moon fell he could feel himself getting weaker and slower. His senses dulled, it almost felt like having a cold. Even when he stopped losing strength he knew he was still enhanced. Still stronger, faster, better than the day before.
When his mother woke up she looked very surprised to see me awake.
"I thought you would want to sleep in after coming home so late."
She was still mad.
"Couldn't sleep."
"Really? So what did you stay out here and watch TV all night instead of doing something useful?" She said as she saw the TV was playing some old American show.
"I did everything I could think to do. Let me know if you find something for me, im getting bored." He then looked back at the TV and continued to watch the show that hadn't finished in his life before, but he saw was playing reruns of the last season here. Being reborn in the future rocks.
His mom then went through the whole house and tried to find something I missed. She eventually came to me to tell me to clean the bathrooms. I hated doing that which is why it was the only thing he didnt do.
As he scrubbed the bathroom he could feel his quirk activating so he looked up at the mirror and watched his eyes turn white. Behind him stood konshu with a disappointed look on his face.
"Ive gifted you the ultimate power, and here you are scrubbing toilets?"
"No offense but getting stronger at night isn't exactly the 'ultimate power."
"My quirk isn't what I meant. The knowledge that you can do this with any soul is the ultimate power. You should be training, getting stronger, getting new powers. Yet here you stand, sponge in hand."
Tsch* Hate to admit it but hes right. If he can soul bond with anyone his power has more potential than almost any other in the world.
"What else can you tell me about soul bonds?"
"Not much, but I know both parties have to be willing."
"Hmm? I wasn't willing to soul bond with you." His brow rose in confusion.
"Whether you want to admit it or not, you did. You wanted subconsciously to soul bond. I just took the opportunity. The willing participant part is where most of potential candidates are going to disappear. Most won't bond with someone that doesnt embody their views. A hero won't bond with a villain and vise versa. Also you're weak. Most won't want to bond with a weakling even if they have the same views as you. This cuts down your numbers to probably just a few, if any."
"You sure know a lot for someone that said they don't know much."
"I said I don't know much about soul bonds themselves. All I did was explain what I've learned of people in my lifetime. As for what I know of soul bonds, well the only way they break is if one of us dies."
"Comforting." He then began to scrub again as he saw his mom getting close enough that she might hear him.
After he finished he walked into the kitchen, still early morning and asked his mom if he could go to a gym.
"Your going to answer your phone at this gym?"
"Yes."
"OK then."
That's it?
"Really? Just like that?" He was surprised she would cave this easily.
"Yes, Did you think I would reject you bettering yourself? But you're going to be doing all the chores I can find for the next 2 weeks."
I knew it was to good to be true. Doesnt mean he didnt rush into his room to call the gym for his membership. They said it might take a while to get my membership sorted so I just went to a local park that had some pullup bars. He would have to leave later but for now he did some bodyweight exercises which he quickly learned were almost useless to him, unless he researched some harder calisthenics workouts. He also discovered that he needed to stretch a lot more.
He did muscle ups with a little bit of effort which he couldnt do before, and even did a one handed hand stand. The few people here must think im some crazy athlete. My physique didnt change, im the same size as i was before, but it feels like my muscles are dense. Harder and stronger in the same package size. This is why he needs that gym membership, if I can't add weights to my exercises I won't gain the strength I need.
He checked his phone and saw it was almost noon. Time to leave and head back home. On his way he used what money he had left and bought clothes for his vigilante outfit. He chose white because of the moon esthetic, and his eyes. Its also not worth it to wear black in to blend into shadows in tokyo, the lights are very bright even at night. He picked out a few white long sleeve shirt, white cargo pants, white boots, and some other white shirts to scrap into his mask. Finding white boots for men was way harder than he thought it would be. He had to look through a few stores to find the boxing tape as well. It's the thing fighters wrap around their knuckles and wrist for support and protection. Harder to find than he would have thought. While in there he also bought some rolls of bandages, he didnt want to leave finger prints and gloves won't fit under the wraps so he will wrap the bandages around his fingers.
After he creates his mask the only defining features he will have will be his height, physique, and glowing white eyes. The police definitely aren't going to know who he is after a week of investigation. Definitely not.
He got home ate lunch and went to the gym after confirming his membership had gone through. Lucky for me, i don't need to go to a specialized fighting gym to have areas to train martial arts, unless he wanted to spar. The gym he chose had lifting areas and a smaller area with punching bags. He only lifted for a little while, instead he used most of the afternoon in the corner with a dead man coaching him on how to box. Luckily I attended an mma club in my last life even if it was brief, which meant I had a solid understanding of the basics already.
The next day he did his growing list of chores, lifted, ate lunch, lifted, ate diner, snuck out, went to the gym which was a 24/7 gym, and during the night he worked on his boxing.
THWAK*
His wrapped fists shot forward with great speed and power making the bag bend, and swing high up into the air.
"Step out, not in."
THWAK*
"Just like that, your power will come fr-"
THWAK*SNAP*
He hit the bag again, but this time with too much power and the chain broke leaving the bag to fly across the room.
"You learn fast." He grinned. "You'll be ready sooner than I thought."
------
Took WAY longer than I hoped to make this one.