Look the story starts out a bit slow with different things I'll introduce and change in the story. We won't get in to the main plot until much later but have faith! I hopefully won't frick this up! Now let's have some fun.
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He is a fairly built young man, a little above average height, with some muscle here and there. Not the most eye-catching of looks, but he doesn't care—just trying to get by and make it "home" to watch some anime.
You might be wondering why he seemingly doesn't care about being reprimanded for not paying attention in class or being caught playing games/ignoring the curriculum. Well, we're in luck—this young man is super smart! Well, more like really good at directing his full attention and energy into studying, bordering on obsession.
That was really the only thing he could do to pass the time before he got his first phone or before he started purchasing manga. Now he was ahead of what was being taught to his classmates—even the grade above him as well.
He never bothered to move up classes since he wanted to take a long break from endless studying and coast along throughout his high school years. What caught his attention this time is, as you would guess, entertainment! Being starved of the joys most kids his age would already consider trivial, he began an endless marathon of euphoria.
Games, manga, anime, manhwa, music—you name it! He was falling into this deep pit of multitasking all these different flavors of the world. Everything that didn't require excessive movement, to be exact.
You see, sitting at a desk studying at "home," or walking toward a nearby library to browse their books, or searching up information on a computer for school was the most he really did on a daily basis for exercise. He still did the activities and movement required for his more physical classes, but he was always left exhausted afterward.
He recently started regretting ignoring his physical endurance and energy, but he's already started working on improving that. Brains and a healthy body will soon be his! Now, if only we could improve his face—I mean his looks. Plastic surgery could fix that, and he would be well on his way to becoming an ideal with brains and becoming a star. Only one problem:
MONEY.
Eh, that would be a future-him problem. Currently, it was nearing his final class of the day where he would continue this new routine he found himself in. He started packing his things 5 minutes before the bell would ring. The teacher made no effort to stop him since it wouldn't be the first time he ignored her instructions.
His classmates started snickering and whispering amongst themselves about what would soon unfold as a sort of fun entertainment for them. Once he finished packing his stuff, he positioned his body from his desk toward the exit. He started mentally going through a map he laid out that he would follow, preparing to make unexpected/expected adjustments he might need.
As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of the school day, he bolted out of his seat and out the door, sprinting down the halls. Other students were starting to exit their own classrooms, making it harder to run in between or around them, but that was to be expected.
What was unexpected was how fast his pursuers were gaining on him. You see, about 5 months ago, he was walking through the streets on his phone playing some Pokémon. He wasn't paying much attention to what was in front of him—of course. So, since he wasn't paying attention, he walked right into someone who was walking backwards, also not paying attention.
What would usually happen is that whenever this happened, he would promptly adjust his position and walk around the person. The others never really made a fuss and carried on with their day. Unfortunately, that time wasn't the same since the guy immediately turned around and said "Hey," which Zack ignored at the time—now assuming he wanted an apology.
Of course, being immersed in his phone, he didn't hear or acknowledge the one in front of him. He adjusted his posture and walked around the individual. Unfortunately, he walked right into someone else standing beside the one he bumped into. "Hey," he recalls being said in a more annoyed tone this time, but as usual he adjusted and moved around—only to hit yet another individual.
At this point, he now assumes, was the breaking point for the others, who felt ignored. "Oi," is what he heard in a very annoyed tone before his phone was promptly yanked out of his hands. "Hey, why'd you do that for!?" was his response.
"You bumped into me and my buddies here. What, do you not have working ears or eyes?" the guy yelled, increasingly irritated. "As an apology, I'll take this trash of a phone you have. It'll do you a lot of good, trust me," he said in a smug tone.
"What? No—give that back! It ain't yours!" Again, Zack was only paying attention to the one who took his phone, completely ignoring the other who moved behind him. He suddenly felt a hand land on his shoulder, gripping it tightly, when he heard another voice:
"You should put your trust in my friend here. It would indeed do you a lot of good."
Another hand landed on his head, pushing him to look toward the ground.
"Yeah, little man, you wouldn't want to get roughed up by us now, would you?" the third person said.
Personally, I wouldn't have taken it like that—and neither did our protagonist—since he shrugged off the two hands holding him and went to yank his phone out of the other guy's hand. Unfortunately for Zack, his plan failed when the guy sidestepped, raised his leg, and kicked forward, pushing him to the ground.
Through the power of my writing and the canon history of how Zack got his phone, he got up and rushed back for another go. This time he was met with a punch to his side from the other lackey, where he didn't go down—just staggered a few feet back.
"Friendly advice: you should really give up. It's just a beat-up old model phone. You don't want this," he said in a condescending tone, referring to both the phone and the beating Zack would receive.
Catching his breath, he locked eyes with the ringleader who held his phone in hand, yelled while running back in, and—as you can assume—proceeded to get his ass kicked, seasoned and served on a golden platter.
You may be wondering: why did the bullies go so far? Well, during the fight, they initially wanted to beat Zack until he submitted. But as our boy didn't—and even landed 3 or 4 meaningful shots (crotch, eyes, nose, ears)—their anger turned it into a brutal one-sided brawl.
When they got tired and started to walk away, our MC was still conscious. Bloodied, battered, injured, but still awake while his adrenaline was starting to subside, he still kept an anger-filled grin, cursing his attackers as they walked away. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they didn't turn back—they left.
The whole thing didn't even last 10 minutes before the paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital. Fast forward until he was mostly healed and rested—he returned to school, but that was when he found out those guys were upperclassmen of his, and they had found out about him too.
It was rough the first few weeks. He had been so weak back then, and his stubbornness to not apologize for what happened kept leading to trouble. That's when he started building some muscle and endurance to either fight back or run away. Of course, their parents were called when the situation was noticed, but it was smoothed over by the school, and he got chewed out by the guy who ran the orphanage he stayed at.
Only this month had things escalated to where he now needed to run away any chance he got, because: 1. he was still weak as a stick and 2. they brought in another "friend."
Which brings us back to where we are currently—running through the halls, speeding, dodging, and weaving through students as best he can.
Making a sharp turn to the left, with the exit of the school in sight, he doesn't slow down. Similarly, the three others are hot on his tail, but he focuses on moving through the students... until he gets distracted when he sees the fourth member of his chasers make a right turn to be directly in front of the exit.
Zack crashes into an unsuspecting student, tumbling to the ground. Making a quick recovery and getting back up, he thinks of a way to escape this situation. Coincidentally, he feels a breeze hitting him from the side. He turns and sees a wide-open window with other students sticking their entire upper bodies out of it.
...
Then in the very next moment, a very lucky bystander would later make a TikTok that, in the background, captures a student nose-diving out an open school window, landing and rolling from his shoulder to a stop. Our MC lies there, contemplating how much he has changed for him to not hesitate to jump out a window.
While staring up at the darkening clouds, he feels raindrops start to fall, washing away some of the exhaustion and pain he is feeling. He lies there for one more minute before forcing himself back up, lest his pursuers find him—luckily, they weren't as crazy as him to jump out as well.
Picking up pace again with his legs, doing the best he can while running in the direction of his "home," the rain starts falling harder, making him regret not bringing a rain jacket or umbrella. Completely soaked, huffing and puffing, he starts reminiscing about how this all started.
(Is this worth it? I'm tired... it hurts.) he thinks.
The sound of thunder strikes in the distance.
(Should I apologize? Give up? ... If I do that, they won't forgive me. I'll have to transfer to another school.)
Thunder strikes again, closer.
(No... I'll keep fighting. This will end. I'll make it end or time will.)
Thunder sounds again, but he doesn't notice before being violently knocked to the ground. He feels two sets of hands grab onto him, pulling him away. (Frick.)
Zack is roughly dragged into an alleyway and slammed against a wall."You're one slippery bastard, you know that," someone says.
"You should stop running from now on. It'll save us the trouble and make the end quicker for you as well."
Zack quickly jumps up to tackle one of the guys in an attempt to escape. Sadly, he's hit with something extremely hard—sounding like metal—right on his back, slamming him down.
"We brought some gifts to help us get this message through that dumb head of yours. Please, do let us know how it feels."
Mc tries forcing himself back up, but his strength keeps being sapped from him with every hit he receives. Thunder booms in the back, getting closer with each passing second. Lifting his arm, he reaches out and grabs one of the guys' legs.
"Oh? Looks like you still have some fight in you... infuriating, really. But not for long."
Raising his metal pipe, he prepares to bring it down right on Zack's arm.
With a last burst of strength, Zack pushes off the leg to roll away–sadly, he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and moved directly into the path of a different metal pipe coming down.
A loud crunch, and ringing starts filling Zack's head while his body goes limp, refusing to exert any form of movement.
"Fuck! Why did you hit him in the head, you dipshit!?" Bully 1 yells
"He moved and got his head in the way! It's not my fault—it was his!" Bully 2 spits out
"Quick, we better leave before we get caught," Bully 3 says, throwing his weapon on Zack. The others do the same before running away from the scene.
(Is... is this how I die? Bleeding out in the back of an alley, left here by those bastards?)
Thunder rumbles in the sky, and if Zack could look up, he would see clouds circling right above him.
(They chased me down... broke my bones... sent me to the hospital for months... made my life hell!)
(And now that I'm on my deathbed, where I could die any second, they leave and pretend they never knew me.)
Thunder booms again; the clouds can now be visibly seen charged with electricity.
(If I knew this would happen, what would I do? Apologize and let them take my phone? ... Nah. I would've been more decisive—maybe even dragged one of them with me.)
Lightning begins to intensify, gathering right above him.
(Just to wipe those smug grins off their stupid faces.)
Lightning shoots out of the clouds.
(MAKE THEM SUFFER THE SAME THING I DID!)
Just as those thoughts cross Zack's mind, a lightning bolt directly hits him, making everything go black.
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