Chapter 12
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The Synonym
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[Evolution]
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| Taka's classroom, a week later… |
…
"Takahashi, come answer this question."
-Sigh…-
In response to his teacher's demand, Taka stood up with a sigh and calmly walked towards the board, snatching the chalk from the teacher's hand once he got close enough.
Then, with it in his grasp, he quickly began scribbling the answer.
-Tack, tack, tack-
The class and the teacher calmly watched him scribble all sorts of calculus on the board, a few eyebrows furrowing, while others raised in confusion.
Once he was finally done, he returned the chalk to the teacher, who took it while glancing at the board with a slight squint of his eyes. Then, having done his job, Taka began walking back to his seat with both hands in his pockets.
All while holding back a grin.
Yet again, another problem flawlessly solved. His classmates must have been gawking at how effortlessly he had made it look—
"It's wrong." His teacher's voice interrupted Taka's thoughts.
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to his teacher, keeping on the poker face.
"... You sure?"
The teacher felt an eyebrow twitch.
"Hah?! Of course I'm sure! You wrote X equals 9, yet the answer should be X equals 11!"
"I wrote X = 11."
"Don't screw with—huh?" The teacher blinked as he saw that, on the board, was indeed the correct answer.
He glanced back at Taka, seeing the stoic student blink while staring blankly at the air, as if his head was somewhere else.
He scratched the back of his head and let out a frustrated sigh, not sure how to interpret this.
'Is my sight getting bad or something?'
"Can I go back to my seat now?"
"Yeah, sure, sure."
With the dismissal, Taka left his teacher to question his eyesight alone and returned to his seat, ignoring the muffled giggles from his classmates around as he sat down.
Unlike their teacher, who had been at an angle where he hadn't been able to see the board while he looked at Taka, they had seen clearly how a magical chalk suddenly began floating in the air and corrected the mistake in a flash.
Their poor teacher had been played.
<[+5 Aura]>
Despite the sudden gain popping up at the corner of his vision, Taka's face remained expressionless. The only thing he did was close his eyes for a moment as if enjoying the sound of the notification, before opening them back again as if nothing had happened.
After the teacher finally shook the matter of his vision off for a moment, the class continued from then on like normal. Questions flew towards other students, and other times, they were told by their teacher to read a certain part of the school textbook.
-Riiing-
Eventually, the school bell rang, declaring an end to classes.
Without hesitation, Taka stood up, picked up his things, and walked out of the classroom.
However, he didn't leave school right away. Instead, he passed by the bathroom first.
Then, as he opened a stall and took a seat at the toilet, he let out a long and exhausted breath.
"Holy fuck."
As if those words had been some kind of trigger, the next instant his back slouched forward and his until then calm and collected face turned weary and completely exhausted all of a sudden. His eyes trembling slightly.
And how could he not? He's been in pain for the entire week, all thanks to the vest currently hidden under his clothes, making the three basic human skills torture for him to do.
Walking, breathing, speaking. All necessary to be a functional human being, and all of them being actions that made Taka regret being born at the moment.
Luckily, his pain was significantly less than on the first day. Compared to then, at least he wasn't crawling through the ground while breathing like he had ten holes in his lungs anymore.
In his meeting with Jiro, he managed to come up with other ways of performing these actions without looking like a zombie out of sheer desperation. From then on, he continued making small improvements in these changes so that the pain and burden would lessen as much as possible.
Using muscles he didn't know were there, changing the rhythm at which he walked or breathed, applying force on different places during each action. All of those changes ultimately evolved in him managing to act completely normal on the outside, despite being in agony inside.
The pain resistance skill also helped a lot to put up a good act. Although sometimes he still had to get to somewhere devoid of people so he could take a breather from keeping up the act. Hence why he was now in a bathroom stall.
And right now, he had finally gotten to the supposed last day he had to keep up with this.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[So you've gotten a hold of the Vest of Perfection! Then, better put it to good use, and start right away with your evolution!]
Conditions for completion:
▸Put on the vest, and wear it for an entire week.
▸Do not take it off until the end of the mission.
▸Do not support your own body by using Aura Projection.
Reward: +50 Aura | Gain the skills [True Walking], [True Breathing], and [True Speaking].
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Neither of the conditions were completed, but he supposed that was because the mission had yet to end.
When would it, though? A week had already passed, and he was still having to put up with this torture.
Maybe the week would end when the day reached the same hour as it was when he got the mission?
Taka could only hope. He hadn't been paying close attention back then to what hour it was, but it shouldn't be too long from now on since he was leaving school right now, much like he had been back then before he got stopped by the annoying delinquents.
All he wanted was for this to end.
"Huuuh~…" He let out a short breath, sweeping the sweat on his forehead, exhausted already. "... I swear to god, if someone tries to stop me at the exit, I'm snapping their head…"
Right now, any kind of composure he had in him was going to keep up his act. If someone else tried to get funny with him like last week with the delinquents, then he didn't think he'd be able to spare them enough mental power to keep them alive when he crashed out.
"Though that might actually help me relieve some stress…"
With that ominous comment, Taka stood up from the bathroom seat and left the stall. His previously exhausted and defeated appearance shifted instantly to a more composed and normal one as he stepped out.
Keeping that look up, he resumed his plan to leave the school.
After quickly changing shoes and taking his stuff out of the locker at the entrance, he began walking towards the exit, ready to go straight home as soon as he reached the outside world
"Come on…"
Only, yet again, someone was waiting for him there.
'What's this, the new tradition of the school?' Taka deadpanned, but didn't slow down in the slightest.
There, leaning against a wall, was Jiro, checking her phone with a bored expression.
Taka glanced at her, squinting his eyes slightly.
'She must be waiting for someone of her class, right? She better be. I'm fine with being talked to, but not when I'm in constant agony. All I want right now is to go back home and lie on my bed until this mission is over.'
With fear inside him, he quickened his pace as he neared her, not wanting to be seen, regardless of her intentions.
He even began looking away, fearing she would sense his gaze or something.
Sadly, it didn't seem like things were going his way today.
"Ah, it's you… uhm, Takahashi, right?"
He had no choice but to stop.
Then, he gave her a look, one that barely hid his annoyance.
The twitching eyebrow also didn't help.
"... What do you want?"
She flinched and raised an eyebrow. "What's with that look? I thought we were cool from our last meeting."
Taka huffed and closed his eyes.
"I'm not in the mood for talking right now."
"What, you got beat up again?"
"..."
"Sorry." She laughed wryly, scratching the back of her head. Then, her eyes widened slightly as Taka began walking away. "Oi, wait up."
She quickly caught up to him, eyeing him from head to toe.
"You out of the cocoon already?"
"Hah?" Taka looked at her in disbelief.
"You know, out of your Quirk's side-effect or whatever. You said it was something like that."
"Oh." Taka rolled his eyes, recalling what he had told her. "No."
"Then the side-effect weakened?"
"No."
She blinked.
"But you seem fine."
"I'm in suffering," Taka said, keeping his deadpan. "But I've adapted enough to look normal on the outside."
She almost tripped at that, glaring at him with a sweatdrop. "And you've been going through whatever that was when we met… for an entire week?"
"Yes."
"You sure you're not just dying or something?"
"Fairly sure."
"Damn… any idea when it will end, then?"
Taka sighed, "... Hopefully, today."
"Seems specific." Jiro gave him a curious glance.
"It was kind of a decision of mine to start with it in the first place, and to keep it going for an entire week as well. If I wanted, I could have ended it at any moment."
She gave him a wry look. "Is that 'evolution' of yours really so worth it?"
Taka simply heaved a sigh and shot her a more annoyed look. "Did you want something?"
He might have found a life hack for talking without sounding like a zombie, but that didn't change the fact that it was one hell of a task to do so.
So, better go straight to the point.
"Huh? Oh, nothing, just…" She scratched her cheek, looking a bit sheepish. "You know, since we are both going to U.A., I thought we could chat for a bit…"
Taka raised an eyebrow, letting the silence stretch for a bit before replying.
"Maybe tomorrow. I don't exactly feel like it right no—"
He was cut short as suddenly a screen popped up in front of him.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[COMPLETED!]
[So you've gotten a hold of the Vest of Perfection! Then, better put it to good use, and start right away with your evolution!]
Conditions for completion:
▸Put on the vest, and wear it for an entire week.✔
▸Do not take it off until the end of the mission.✔
▸Do not support your own body by using Aura Projection.✔
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
<Calculating Reward…>
<+50 Aura>
<+Skill [True Speaking]>
<+Skill [True Breathing]>
<+Skill [True Walking]>
Right as the rewards began being listed by the system, Taka felt something change.
It was as if his very body structure was changing. His muscles, his tendons, his bones… They weren't growing or becoming stronger, but moving.
The change was minimal. He could feel it. Most of them were moving mere millimeters, and just a few passed the centimeter mark. But the shift in all of them at the same time inevitably caused a great deal of pain.
Taka's legs almost buckled in front of the sudden influx of agony.
But the suffering only lasted about five seconds before it all ended. Leaving as soon as it came.
For a moment, Taka was only able to focus on the relief of it finally ending, but as his mind calmed down, his eyes widened in realization.
Something was different.
At first, he didn't know exactly why. He simply stood there, baffled as he tried to find something different inside of him.
But then, as he took a breath—
"Haaah~"
The pain was gone.
It still felt somewhat obstructed, but he could now breathe relatively easily, despite the pressure still being there.
Not only that, but as he tried shifting his weight around, he noticed something different too.
What had previously been a hellish task, having to focus constantly on using the right muscles on his legs and back to not suddenly collapse in the middle of the street, was now an almost effortless task. Like breathing, the pressure was still there, but now it barely seemed to affect him.
As for talking.
"Ahem… aaah, aaaah, oooh."
Well, he couldn't exactly find much of a difference… but just like the other actions, speaking was also much smoother, and the pressure barely affected him anymore.
Taka looked around at himself, raising an eyebrow as he saw no change in his appearance.
His muscles had been moving, that was for sure, but it appeared they hadn't caused that much of a change outside.
And yet, he felt so different.
"...!" Suddenly, his eyes shone as if he had realized something.
Without warning, he took off his school sweater. Then, he grabbed the vest under it and quickly took it off, leaving only his T-shirt on.
The next instant, he felt it.
"This...!" His eyes widened, his mouth curling up slightly.
It wasn't like he had become stronger or anything. This hadn't been gravity training… but in a way, it had been similar.
Taking the vest off had freed him from the pressure his own aura applied to him, and without it, he could now feel it even more clearly.
He was breathing differently, but not in a bad way. It felt like, no matter how much he forced himself, how much he ran or exercised, he would never get out of breath again.
The same went for walking. Even though he was currently standing in place, he could still feel a great difference. His balance while standing was perfect. That slight awkwardness he felt sometimes, wondering if he was doing something as simple as standing correctly, was gone. He could tell the same went for walking. There was no longer any uncertainty in anything that regarded using his lower body to move or stand.
If he gave a step forward right now, he knew it'd be in the most perfect way possible.
"Why did you suddenly begin stripping down?" Suddenly, Jiro's voice snapped Taka from his daze.
'Right, I forgot she was there.' Taka sweatdropped.
Not only had he stopped talking mid-walk, but then began making strange noises, and then began taking his sweater off.
"Uh, sorry about that."
The moment those words came out, Jiro flinched, her eyebrow furrowing slightly.
"You…" She paused. "... Can you repeat that?"
"Sorry about that?"
"You sound… different." She commented, suddenly looking a bit shy.
Taka raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He cleared his throat and hummed a bit, trying to feel something different, but other than feeling a bit more in control of his volume and pitch, there wasn't much difference.
No, actually, that was it.
Since he got the system, he'd been putting on a bit of an act in front of everyone. Along with it, he'd made his voice a tad deeper. So far, he hadn't had a voice crack or made it overly deep, but like all conscious acts, there had been times his control over it had slipped faintly.
Now, though, that was no longer the case. Suddenly, he felt in total control over his voice. The deepening of his voice, which had been part of the act to sound cooler, no longer felt like an act, but simply another range his voice could take.
It all felt much more natural.
Jiro scratched her cheek, looking a bit confused herself. "I don't know… It's just different."
Taka smiled faintly.
"Yeah, I suppose it is."
Satisfied with all the changes that he had gone through in an instant, his attention shifted to his newly acquired rewards.
Quickly, he opened the three skills' descriptions and gave them a quick overview.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Speaking] (Passive)
Description: Talking is a basic human skill; it represents the main way to communicate and convey more complex ideas to others. Yet, only a few have the true gift of swaying and igniting the spirits of those around them with only their voice. For the true Aura Farmer makes hearts shake, no matter what stupidity comes out of their mouth.
▸Enhances the control over your voice.
▸Enhances talent in speaking.
▸Boosts singing-related skills.
▸Boosts capacity to imitate others.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Breathing] (Passive)
Description: Oxygen intake, a bodily necessity for most living beings. Yet, it's also something that represents the limits of the body, often being the reason for exhaustion, passing out, or outright dying. An Aura Farmer masters the need of his body for this resource, and manages it perfectly, for the True Aura Farmer must flex until their last breath.
▸Perfects the body's motion for breathing, allowing for much larger oxygen reserves.
▸Makes it harder for the body to get exhausted.
▸Reduces strain during air intake.
▸You sound badass, even when breathing.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Walking] (Passive)
Description: Anyone can walk, for that is how human beings move. However, Aura Farmers are different. To silence a room when you stride in, to stand out from those around you by simply moving, to make a crowd make way for you simply with the aura you emanate… all of that represents a true Aura Farmer.
▸Eliminates all awkward movements performed accidentally or intentionally during walking.
▸Prevents long-term damage to the articulations.
▸Reduces leg strain during physically heavy activities.
▸Improved Leg strength.
▸More control over the noise you make, making it dependent on you and what you decide is best for each situation.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Three passive skills, not a strange sight amidst all he had gotten so far.
… Actually, was there nothing but passive skills in his status?
'Do I even have active skills?—right, there's the Unmovable Object skill and the Trouble Radar skill.'
<Innamovible Object, host.>
'Uh, whatever you say.'
Regardless, a skill was a skill, passive, active, or trash, he'd always welcome more, regardless of how much he complained about them in the moment. Those harsh comments were just his frustrations at not receiving a planet-busting ability.
The new three, though,… were the real deal.
If he had only read their names, he might have assumed they were lame, or that they wouldn't be worth much… but now that he was actually experiencing the change in his own flesh, he accepted his mistake.
He was wrong.
It was like he had ascended to a higher plane of existence. Like the way he'd been living before had been plainly wrong.
Having checked his newly acquired skills, albeit very swiftly since there was someone beside him right now and he didn't want to appear more schizophrenic than he already had, he then opened his status page and gave his aura a quick look.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 77
▸ Defense: 154
▸ Aura Projection: 1213
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Total Aura: 1263
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Skills:
▸Clean
▸Trouble Radar
▸Connoisseur
▸Pain is Just a Feeling
▸Innamovible Object
▸True Speaking
▸True Breathing
▸True Walking
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
'It's growing steadily.' He let out a satisfied sigh.
Taka dared to say, in a month or two, it was possible he'd reach the two-thousand aura.
Which, in terms of power, would be enough to lift around a ton.
Nothing too groundbreaking in a world filled with people who had superpowers, but it would practically be on the level of a really high-strength-enhancing Quirk.
And when using that much aura in Aura Projection, it was like having really long hands that he could use to fly, to lift multiple things at the same time, and to reach things from afar. So it was practically even better than just some plain enhancement.
He only needed to stack 800 aura points until then.
"Anyway, where were we?" Taka turned back to Jiro, who was looking a bit weirded out by his behavior.
"You were explaining why you were suddenly stripping down."
"..."
Suddenly, Taka didn't feel like talking anymore.
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Now, Taka has become immune to scoliosis, asthma, and, uh, stuttering? Sadly, he won't be able to dududududuel anymore.
I don't know what I'm saying, ignore me.)
patreon.com/TheSynonym
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[Evolution]
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| Taka's classroom, a week later… |
…
"Takahashi, come answer this question."
-Sigh…-
In response to his teacher's demand, Taka stood up with a sigh and calmly walked towards the board, snatching the chalk from the teacher's hand once he got close enough.
Then, with it in his grasp, he quickly began scribbling the answer.
-Tack, tack, tack-
The class and the teacher calmly watched him scribble all sorts of calculus on the board, a few eyebrows furrowing, while others raised in confusion.
Once he was finally done, he returned the chalk to the teacher, who took it while glancing at the board with a slight squint of his eyes. Then, having done his job, Taka began walking back to his seat with both hands in his pockets.
All while holding back a grin.
Yet again, another problem flawlessly solved. His classmates must have been gawking at how effortlessly he had made it look—
"It's wrong." His teacher's voice interrupted Taka's thoughts.
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to his teacher, keeping on the poker face.
"... You sure?"
The teacher felt an eyebrow twitch.
"Hah?! Of course I'm sure! You wrote X equals 9, yet the answer should be X equals 11!"
"I wrote X = 11."
"Don't screw with—huh?" The teacher blinked as he saw that, on the board, was indeed the correct answer.
He glanced back at Taka, seeing the stoic student blink while staring blankly at the air, as if his head was somewhere else.
He scratched the back of his head and let out a frustrated sigh, not sure how to interpret this.
'Is my sight getting bad or something?'
"Can I go back to my seat now?"
"Yeah, sure, sure."
With the dismissal, Taka left his teacher to question his eyesight alone and returned to his seat, ignoring the muffled giggles from his classmates around as he sat down.
Unlike their teacher, who had been at an angle where he hadn't been able to see the board while he looked at Taka, they had seen clearly how a magical chalk suddenly began floating in the air and corrected the mistake in a flash.
Their poor teacher had been played.
<[+5 Aura]>
Despite the sudden gain popping up at the corner of his vision, Taka's face remained expressionless. The only thing he did was close his eyes for a moment as if enjoying the sound of the notification, before opening them back again as if nothing had happened.
After the teacher finally shook the matter of his vision off for a moment, the class continued from then on like normal. Questions flew towards other students, and other times, they were told by their teacher to read a certain part of the school textbook.
-Riiing-
Eventually, the school bell rang, declaring an end to classes.
Without hesitation, Taka stood up, picked up his things, and walked out of the classroom.
However, he didn't leave school right away. Instead, he passed by the bathroom first.
Then, as he opened a stall and took a seat at the toilet, he let out a long and exhausted breath.
"Holy fuck."
As if those words had been some kind of trigger, the next instant his back slouched forward and his until then calm and collected face turned weary and completely exhausted all of a sudden. His eyes trembling slightly.
And how could he not? He's been in pain for the entire week, all thanks to the vest currently hidden under his clothes, making the three basic human skills torture for him to do.
Walking, breathing, speaking. All necessary to be a functional human being, and all of them being actions that made Taka regret being born at the moment.
Luckily, his pain was significantly less than on the first day. Compared to then, at least he wasn't crawling through the ground while breathing like he had ten holes in his lungs anymore.
In his meeting with Jiro, he managed to come up with other ways of performing these actions without looking like a zombie out of sheer desperation. From then on, he continued making small improvements in these changes so that the pain and burden would lessen as much as possible.
Using muscles he didn't know were there, changing the rhythm at which he walked or breathed, applying force on different places during each action. All of those changes ultimately evolved in him managing to act completely normal on the outside, despite being in agony inside.
The pain resistance skill also helped a lot to put up a good act. Although sometimes he still had to get to somewhere devoid of people so he could take a breather from keeping up the act. Hence why he was now in a bathroom stall.
And right now, he had finally gotten to the supposed last day he had to keep up with this.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[So you've gotten a hold of the Vest of Perfection! Then, better put it to good use, and start right away with your evolution!]
Conditions for completion:
▸Put on the vest, and wear it for an entire week.
▸Do not take it off until the end of the mission.
▸Do not support your own body by using Aura Projection.
Reward: +50 Aura | Gain the skills [True Walking], [True Breathing], and [True Speaking].
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Neither of the conditions were completed, but he supposed that was because the mission had yet to end.
When would it, though? A week had already passed, and he was still having to put up with this torture.
Maybe the week would end when the day reached the same hour as it was when he got the mission?
Taka could only hope. He hadn't been paying close attention back then to what hour it was, but it shouldn't be too long from now on since he was leaving school right now, much like he had been back then before he got stopped by the annoying delinquents.
All he wanted was for this to end.
"Huuuh~…" He let out a short breath, sweeping the sweat on his forehead, exhausted already. "... I swear to god, if someone tries to stop me at the exit, I'm snapping their head…"
Right now, any kind of composure he had in him was going to keep up his act. If someone else tried to get funny with him like last week with the delinquents, then he didn't think he'd be able to spare them enough mental power to keep them alive when he crashed out.
"Though that might actually help me relieve some stress…"
With that ominous comment, Taka stood up from the bathroom seat and left the stall. His previously exhausted and defeated appearance shifted instantly to a more composed and normal one as he stepped out.
Keeping that look up, he resumed his plan to leave the school.
After quickly changing shoes and taking his stuff out of the locker at the entrance, he began walking towards the exit, ready to go straight home as soon as he reached the outside world
"Come on…"
Only, yet again, someone was waiting for him there.
'What's this, the new tradition of the school?' Taka deadpanned, but didn't slow down in the slightest.
There, leaning against a wall, was Jiro, checking her phone with a bored expression.
Taka glanced at her, squinting his eyes slightly.
'She must be waiting for someone of her class, right? She better be. I'm fine with being talked to, but not when I'm in constant agony. All I want right now is to go back home and lie on my bed until this mission is over.'
With fear inside him, he quickened his pace as he neared her, not wanting to be seen, regardless of her intentions.
He even began looking away, fearing she would sense his gaze or something.
Sadly, it didn't seem like things were going his way today.
"Ah, it's you… uhm, Takahashi, right?"
He had no choice but to stop.
Then, he gave her a look, one that barely hid his annoyance.
The twitching eyebrow also didn't help.
"... What do you want?"
She flinched and raised an eyebrow. "What's with that look? I thought we were cool from our last meeting."
Taka huffed and closed his eyes.
"I'm not in the mood for talking right now."
"What, you got beat up again?"
"..."
"Sorry." She laughed wryly, scratching the back of her head. Then, her eyes widened slightly as Taka began walking away. "Oi, wait up."
She quickly caught up to him, eyeing him from head to toe.
"You out of the cocoon already?"
"Hah?" Taka looked at her in disbelief.
"You know, out of your Quirk's side-effect or whatever. You said it was something like that."
"Oh." Taka rolled his eyes, recalling what he had told her. "No."
"Then the side-effect weakened?"
"No."
She blinked.
"But you seem fine."
"I'm in suffering," Taka said, keeping his deadpan. "But I've adapted enough to look normal on the outside."
She almost tripped at that, glaring at him with a sweatdrop. "And you've been going through whatever that was when we met… for an entire week?"
"Yes."
"You sure you're not just dying or something?"
"Fairly sure."
"Damn… any idea when it will end, then?"
Taka sighed, "... Hopefully, today."
"Seems specific." Jiro gave him a curious glance.
"It was kind of a decision of mine to start with it in the first place, and to keep it going for an entire week as well. If I wanted, I could have ended it at any moment."
She gave him a wry look. "Is that 'evolution' of yours really so worth it?"
Taka simply heaved a sigh and shot her a more annoyed look. "Did you want something?"
He might have found a life hack for talking without sounding like a zombie, but that didn't change the fact that it was one hell of a task to do so.
So, better go straight to the point.
"Huh? Oh, nothing, just…" She scratched her cheek, looking a bit sheepish. "You know, since we are both going to U.A., I thought we could chat for a bit…"
Taka raised an eyebrow, letting the silence stretch for a bit before replying.
"Maybe tomorrow. I don't exactly feel like it right no—"
He was cut short as suddenly a screen popped up in front of him.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[COMPLETED!]
[So you've gotten a hold of the Vest of Perfection! Then, better put it to good use, and start right away with your evolution!]
Conditions for completion:
▸Put on the vest, and wear it for an entire week.✔
▸Do not take it off until the end of the mission.✔
▸Do not support your own body by using Aura Projection.✔
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
<Calculating Reward…>
<+50 Aura>
<+Skill [True Speaking]>
<+Skill [True Breathing]>
<+Skill [True Walking]>
Right as the rewards began being listed by the system, Taka felt something change.
It was as if his very body structure was changing. His muscles, his tendons, his bones… They weren't growing or becoming stronger, but moving.
The change was minimal. He could feel it. Most of them were moving mere millimeters, and just a few passed the centimeter mark. But the shift in all of them at the same time inevitably caused a great deal of pain.
Taka's legs almost buckled in front of the sudden influx of agony.
But the suffering only lasted about five seconds before it all ended. Leaving as soon as it came.
For a moment, Taka was only able to focus on the relief of it finally ending, but as his mind calmed down, his eyes widened in realization.
Something was different.
At first, he didn't know exactly why. He simply stood there, baffled as he tried to find something different inside of him.
But then, as he took a breath—
"Haaah~"
The pain was gone.
It still felt somewhat obstructed, but he could now breathe relatively easily, despite the pressure still being there.
Not only that, but as he tried shifting his weight around, he noticed something different too.
What had previously been a hellish task, having to focus constantly on using the right muscles on his legs and back to not suddenly collapse in the middle of the street, was now an almost effortless task. Like breathing, the pressure was still there, but now it barely seemed to affect him.
As for talking.
"Ahem… aaah, aaaah, oooh."
Well, he couldn't exactly find much of a difference… but just like the other actions, speaking was also much smoother, and the pressure barely affected him anymore.
Taka looked around at himself, raising an eyebrow as he saw no change in his appearance.
His muscles had been moving, that was for sure, but it appeared they hadn't caused that much of a change outside.
And yet, he felt so different.
"...!" Suddenly, his eyes shone as if he had realized something.
Without warning, he took off his school sweater. Then, he grabbed the vest under it and quickly took it off, leaving only his T-shirt on.
The next instant, he felt it.
"This...!" His eyes widened, his mouth curling up slightly.
It wasn't like he had become stronger or anything. This hadn't been gravity training… but in a way, it had been similar.
Taking the vest off had freed him from the pressure his own aura applied to him, and without it, he could now feel it even more clearly.
He was breathing differently, but not in a bad way. It felt like, no matter how much he forced himself, how much he ran or exercised, he would never get out of breath again.
The same went for walking. Even though he was currently standing in place, he could still feel a great difference. His balance while standing was perfect. That slight awkwardness he felt sometimes, wondering if he was doing something as simple as standing correctly, was gone. He could tell the same went for walking. There was no longer any uncertainty in anything that regarded using his lower body to move or stand.
If he gave a step forward right now, he knew it'd be in the most perfect way possible.
"Why did you suddenly begin stripping down?" Suddenly, Jiro's voice snapped Taka from his daze.
'Right, I forgot she was there.' Taka sweatdropped.
Not only had he stopped talking mid-walk, but then began making strange noises, and then began taking his sweater off.
"Uh, sorry about that."
The moment those words came out, Jiro flinched, her eyebrow furrowing slightly.
"You…" She paused. "... Can you repeat that?"
"Sorry about that?"
"You sound… different." She commented, suddenly looking a bit shy.
Taka raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He cleared his throat and hummed a bit, trying to feel something different, but other than feeling a bit more in control of his volume and pitch, there wasn't much difference.
No, actually, that was it.
Since he got the system, he'd been putting on a bit of an act in front of everyone. Along with it, he'd made his voice a tad deeper. So far, he hadn't had a voice crack or made it overly deep, but like all conscious acts, there had been times his control over it had slipped faintly.
Now, though, that was no longer the case. Suddenly, he felt in total control over his voice. The deepening of his voice, which had been part of the act to sound cooler, no longer felt like an act, but simply another range his voice could take.
It all felt much more natural.
Jiro scratched her cheek, looking a bit confused herself. "I don't know… It's just different."
Taka smiled faintly.
"Yeah, I suppose it is."
Satisfied with all the changes that he had gone through in an instant, his attention shifted to his newly acquired rewards.
Quickly, he opened the three skills' descriptions and gave them a quick overview.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Speaking] (Passive)
Description: Talking is a basic human skill; it represents the main way to communicate and convey more complex ideas to others. Yet, only a few have the true gift of swaying and igniting the spirits of those around them with only their voice. For the true Aura Farmer makes hearts shake, no matter what stupidity comes out of their mouth.
▸Enhances the control over your voice.
▸Enhances talent in speaking.
▸Boosts singing-related skills.
▸Boosts capacity to imitate others.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Breathing] (Passive)
Description: Oxygen intake, a bodily necessity for most living beings. Yet, it's also something that represents the limits of the body, often being the reason for exhaustion, passing out, or outright dying. An Aura Farmer masters the need of his body for this resource, and manages it perfectly, for the True Aura Farmer must flex until their last breath.
▸Perfects the body's motion for breathing, allowing for much larger oxygen reserves.
▸Makes it harder for the body to get exhausted.
▸Reduces strain during air intake.
▸You sound badass, even when breathing.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[True Walking] (Passive)
Description: Anyone can walk, for that is how human beings move. However, Aura Farmers are different. To silence a room when you stride in, to stand out from those around you by simply moving, to make a crowd make way for you simply with the aura you emanate… all of that represents a true Aura Farmer.
▸Eliminates all awkward movements performed accidentally or intentionally during walking.
▸Prevents long-term damage to the articulations.
▸Reduces leg strain during physically heavy activities.
▸Improved Leg strength.
▸More control over the noise you make, making it dependent on you and what you decide is best for each situation.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Three passive skills, not a strange sight amidst all he had gotten so far.
… Actually, was there nothing but passive skills in his status?
'Do I even have active skills?—right, there's the Unmovable Object skill and the Trouble Radar skill.'
<Innamovible Object, host.>
'Uh, whatever you say.'
Regardless, a skill was a skill, passive, active, or trash, he'd always welcome more, regardless of how much he complained about them in the moment. Those harsh comments were just his frustrations at not receiving a planet-busting ability.
The new three, though,… were the real deal.
If he had only read their names, he might have assumed they were lame, or that they wouldn't be worth much… but now that he was actually experiencing the change in his own flesh, he accepted his mistake.
He was wrong.
It was like he had ascended to a higher plane of existence. Like the way he'd been living before had been plainly wrong.
Having checked his newly acquired skills, albeit very swiftly since there was someone beside him right now and he didn't want to appear more schizophrenic than he already had, he then opened his status page and gave his aura a quick look.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 77
▸ Defense: 154
▸ Aura Projection: 1213
─────────────
Total Aura: 1263
─────────────
Skills:
▸Clean
▸Trouble Radar
▸Connoisseur
▸Pain is Just a Feeling
▸Innamovible Object
▸True Speaking
▸True Breathing
▸True Walking
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
'It's growing steadily.' He let out a satisfied sigh.
Taka dared to say, in a month or two, it was possible he'd reach the two-thousand aura.
Which, in terms of power, would be enough to lift around a ton.
Nothing too groundbreaking in a world filled with people who had superpowers, but it would practically be on the level of a really high-strength-enhancing Quirk.
And when using that much aura in Aura Projection, it was like having really long hands that he could use to fly, to lift multiple things at the same time, and to reach things from afar. So it was practically even better than just some plain enhancement.
He only needed to stack 800 aura points until then.
"Anyway, where were we?" Taka turned back to Jiro, who was looking a bit weirded out by his behavior.
"You were explaining why you were suddenly stripping down."
"..."
Suddenly, Taka didn't feel like talking anymore.
...
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Now, Taka has become immune to scoliosis, asthma, and, uh, stuttering? Sadly, he won't be able to dududududuel anymore.
I don't know what I'm saying, ignore me.)
