Sup! New chapter!
My Patrons: Rayshawn Lopez, Losthero, ieatstars, ZaweRD, RedReaper, Shadowflare300, Someguy34, Leroy, Nathan Hall, SoraOS, Ksj, Red_Valstrax, chris blakeley, Alita, Luke, joshawa brooks, bbbbbb, Kharn, Brent Sears, Warlock With A Warglock, Kristopher Welsh, Aznxa21, AvidDreamer, Camron Buie, Dinther, Akshay P Raj M, Primal Lord, MattJ, DreXy, D J, Canis, Xavier Luna, Exteriorabyss, Thw Cancer Fox, A Scarecrow, Seanus Kelly, Drop Bear, John, Hannibal, Maleficarum, madao and Brody Mcdermott.Isao Tsumugi
He walked in the direction where he felt Kiriko, limping slightly, with Rei walking beside him, holding his hand to help him move forward.
And god, he had truly underestimated just how much stronger Rei had become. She hadn't just become strong; she had become very strong. He still found it a bit hard to believe that she had easily surpassed him in the field of raw strength.
But remembering her trait and ability, it wasn't all that shocking. After all, every single strike from Rei within a three-second window became 10% stronger, and this effect stacked, continually increasing the percentage of bonus damage.
So it could be said with absolute certainty that Rei could now easily defeat most of the people walking around here purely with her physical strength, and that in itself was deeply impressive.
I sighed and looked at Rei, who was walking with my arm draped over her shoulder. She wasn't looking in my direction, but even so, I could see her red ears and realized that she felt a bit ashamed, or perhaps she was even embarrassed by what she had done on the roof.
Silently, my gaze shifted forward, and I kept walking without showing even a hint that I had looked at her. But even so, I knew she felt my eyes on her, and I smirked.
Anyway, putting that aside for now, right now I needed...
[Would you like to use a Silver Ticket?]
"Of course, go ahead and use it, and give me something worthwhile."
[X-ray Goggles]
|Common Item|
Hunter x Hunter - a pair of X-ray goggles that can be used to see through any wall or object. A dial is available to adjust the vision depth.
I stared at the screen that appeared before me with a slightly bewildered look, because... excuse me, but even though I'm an easily excitable young guy, I'm not about to go peeping on others...
Wait a minute, can this thing see through skin, muscles, and everything else? Interesting... if it actually can do that, then I'd better give it to Shizuka so she can use it to look through skin and so on.
She isn't a surgeon, of course, but at the very least she is the closest person to that profession we have. Granted, for an ordinary medical college student, becoming a doctor is like walking to the moon, but since we didn't have any alternatives for now, let her have these goggles. And if we do happen to find someone along the way to the island who is a trained surgeon or doctor, we'll give the goggles to them—provided they are a compliant person, because if not, it's better for these X-ray vision goggles to stay with Shizuka.
"Hey, Isao-chan, what are you thinking about?" Rei suddenly spoke up, and looking at her, I noticed how she was slightly pursing her lips, feeling a bit of lingering shame.
"Just things, just thinking about this and that." I gave an awkward smile, because despite the fact that I considered myself someone who didn't get embarrassed by things related to my personal relationships, I could still feel self-conscious—especially when a girl takes the lead and displays the kind of initiative Rei just did on the roof.
"Ah, oh, okay..."
And so our little conversation ended, quickly and awkwardly, so I sighed and spoke up; I didn't particularly want to stay in such an awkward atmosphere.
"Hey, Rei, about what happened on the roof." She froze for a second when I said those words.
"…Don't say you didn't like the kiss…" She was looking away as she said this, but the tone with which she spoke those words was ice-cold.
Ouch, the force with which she squeezed my forearm, which she had been holding the entire time we walked, was damn painful.
"Whoa, no, of course not! I-I just wanted to say that there's no need to feel shame or embarrassment, because... well, it looks like we're going to end up together after some time anyway!" She froze again, but this time she stopped dead in her tracks and slowly began to turn toward me. When she was completely facing me, I saw the sheer look of happiness with which she was staring at me.
Her smile stretched from ear to ear, and her eyes were wide open and glowing with an incredible amount of happiness, making me feel slightly relaxed. I exhaled as if I had just dodged a whole bulldozer that had almost turned me into a pancake.
"Well, it seems that agreement we made back at your house wasn't even necessary to see your affection for me." I tried to give her a charming smile, but I felt like I probably smiled like a fool. Even so, that was more than enough for Rei, and she simply threw herself into hugging me with all her might, making me cough slightly from the sheer suddenness of it. "Ugh... Rei, t-too tight!" She only slightly loosened her embrace, just enough for me to catch a tiny breath of air, and even that was more than I expected, so thanks at least for that.
"I love you so much, love you, love you, love you!" She began to whisper these words into my chest, pressing her head against it, so the sound of her saying it was muffled, but still audible.
It was a bit awkward to be hugging in the middle of a corridor where any passerby could see us hugging like this... well, it was just awkward for me, you can't blame a guy for being self-conscious!
So I just stood there, letting Rei hug me, until after a few seconds I realized that Rei might feel a bit sad if I didn't return the hug, and I wrapped my own arms around her shoulders. At that, her embrace grew even tighter, almost cutting off my air for a second time. A few taps on Rei's back were enough to make her realize she was suffocating me and, once again, she slightly loosened her grip.
And so we stood there hugging in the middle of the corridor; fortunately, we were on the very top floor where there were absolutely no people, and no one could see my flushed face.
After a while, Rei began to let go of me herself, finally allowing me to breathe freely.
"Come on, let's go to your mother and help her with the tasks I assigned her." I extended my hand to her, which she squeezed tightly, and together we headed down to the first floor, where I felt the life force signature of Kiriko.
Along the way, I passed by a playroom that contained about a dozen different children, and around the room itself were enough adults to keep an eye on all of them.
Right now, most of them were sitting and eating, since more than half of them had come to the mall from the elementary school.
My eye caught my mom, who was sitting next to Rin, and K-imoto, who was also right next to them. But K-imoto seemed to have sensed me, because I don't know how else to explain the fact that she suddenly whipped around in my direction.
She stared at me for a while, but then she shifted her eyes to how Rei and I were squeezing each other's hands. After that, she made a resentful face and puffed out her cheeks, making me give her a slightly nervous smile.
In the end, I kept walking, since I needed to go and ask how things were going with Kiriko. But along the way, as I walked arm-in-arm with Rei, Takuzo appeared in front of me, looking a bit nervous.
"Ah, Isao-sama…" He uttered my name, looking directly into my face, after which he nervously lowered his head and wanted to continue speaking. But then, seemingly catching sight of how tightly Rei was squeezing my hand, he fell into a minor state of shock, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Um, yes, Takuzo? Did something happen?" A few steps behind him, I saw his group standing—his friends and the girl who had joined us at the school—and I think I even guessed why he had come to me.
"Ahem, n-no... I mean, yes! I wanted to ask you for one thing! I don't know if you'll agree, but I still wanted to ask you!"
"Yes? And what thing is that?"
"I... please, could you awaken my friends' abilities! I would be much more at peace if I knew that my friends had a way to protect themselves! Please!"
"Well..." I looked over at his friends again, who were standing in the back, looking at me with hope in the depths of their eyes, waiting for my answer. "Why not? Alright, let's find some empty space and do it all there. Follow me." I waved my right hand at him and walked forward, passing past him. For the first few seconds, they just stared at each other in silence, but as soon as it hit them what I had said, they all suddenly began talking to each other joyfully, making me smile.
After a short walk here and there, we finally found an empty space, which turned out to be some small cosmetics store, and the whole crowd of us went inside. After that, Takuzo lined up all his friends in a row, making them wait, and walked up to me himself.
"Um... here, Isao-sama, this is them." Takuzo pointed to all the people standing in front of him, and... to be honest, he didn't remember the name of a single one of them, which would probably offend them if he said it out loud—though... to be honest? I don't care. Sorry, not sorry.
"And who among you wants to go first?" I looked at them with a calm smile, and for a while, they glanced at each other hesitantly, until a girl with a bob cut whose hair was a dark blue color, close to black, stepped forward.
"I... I'm ready to do it." As she approached me, trembling slightly, I tried to give her a reassuring smile so she wouldn't be so scared, and reaching out, I placed my hand on her head as she squeezed her eyes shut.
And exactly a few seconds later, she let out a soft exhale, then stood still for a few seconds until finally opening her eyes wide, immediately looking down at her hands.
[Flood]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to create and release extreme volumes of water from your body. Even at a basic level, it is enough to flood a building; with training, you can flood entire streets and towns. Does not grant control over the water created.
[Flexible]
|Common Trait|
You are inordinately flexible, even more so than an expert contortionist.
Hm, a pretty good power. This will be useful on the island when we need drinking water.
"Ah... t-thank you, Isao-san, thank you very much!" She bowed deeply several times and practically ran back to her boyfriend standing a few steps away from us, while I just smiled and waved to the next person to come forward.
This person was an unremarkable guy with short brown hair who stood before me a bit nervously. With him, I went through the exact same process as with the other people whose ability and trait I had awakened.
A few seconds later, he too was looking somewhere inside himself in shock, likely trying to understand what kind of power he had received. And me? I was just reading what the floating Gacha screen was showing me, and... damn, this power is pretty good too. He can treat absolutely anything as if it were playdough!
...Would this work on human bodies? Ugh-ugh! Bad thoughts! Begone!
[Soften]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to soften objects you are touching while still keeping their properties otherwise. You can turn the consistency of steel into dough, but it is still just as heavy and durable. Once you release your power, the objects will slowly regain their hardness, but their shapes will still remain changed.
[Nimble]
|Common Trait|
You are pretty nimble, granting you slightly faster reflexes and speed.
The person after him was a young girl with dark blue hair gathered into two pigtails spread out on either side of her neck. She approached me excitedly, squeezing her hands in anticipation, making him mentally chuckle.
[Greater Cure Wounds]
|Elite Ability|
You are capable of greatly healing others and yourself by expending your energy. The more energy you expend, the stronger a healing effect you can exert; the more severe a wound, the more energy your healing consumes, but you can heal even lethal wounds. Healing effectiveness is dependent on the power difference between you and the target.
[Venomous]
|Uncommon Trait|
You are venomous, and your bite contains paralyzing venom. The power of the paralysis scales with your physical abilities.
"Wow!" She cried out loudly, looking at herself, while I stared at her with wide eyes as the full gravity of the situation hit me.
This girl standing before me had instantly become an incredibly valuable member of our entire large group of survivors. The ability to heal even fatal wounds turned her from an ordinary person whose importance was on par with other ordinary people, into a person who... damn, she's literally a healer that we are going to need like crazy!
"Tanuichi, as soon as Shizuka returns, you will stay right next to her, understood? Among all the people in our group, you alone are the possessor of a power that can heal others—and not just ordinary wounds, but fatal ones. Do you understand?" I took her by the shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes, and she just stared back with great surprise and embarrassment, until finally she answered him.
"Y-yes, Isao-sama! I understand." She nodded her head several times, making me chuckle, because she'd probably end up needing her own ability if she kept nodding her head with that much force.
"Takuzo!" Takuzo looked in his direction with a questioning look and anticipation of an order, interrupting his conversation with his girlfriend. "Protect this girl, let her stay close to you for the time being!" I pushed her in his direction, making him look at me with a slightly confused expression, but he didn't object to my order.
Everyone who was in the room looked in her direction with massive astonishment. The only one who didn't do so was Rei, who heard and understood the full seriousness of the situation and the responsibility that had fallen upon Takuzo.
After Tanuichi, another girl with a dark brown bob cut appeared before me. She looked in my direction with a faint shred of hope, and the meaning of that hope didn't escape me. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that what kind of power she would receive didn't depend on me at all, and when she finally received her powers, she let out a slightly disappointed sigh.
[Tinker - Redundancy]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to make whatever technology you create or modify have a lot of redundancies. Meaning breaking them or making them nonfunctional is going to be very frustrating. You can turn a hyper-sensitive, fragile phone into one that works even with its screen shattered, its wires exposed, dunked underwater, and its chassis half-melted without losing any performance.
[Arthropod Affiliate]
|Uncommon Trait|
You have great affinity with insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and creatures that are aligned with them. This makes it easier to earn their affection and favor, and form relationships with them. Thanks to your affinity with the Arthropods, you possess slightly increased durability and armor-based abilities, and effects cost slightly less energy to use.
Even though she herself didn't realize what she had pulled out from the very depths of chaos, I did. A Tinker ability that allows creating and repairing almost anything, because there were no limitations on the type of technology she could interact with—which meant she could create a huge list of things, and repair even more, so much so that the items fixed by her would become almost indestructible!
"Ha-ah…" I took a deep breath and took her by the shoulder just as she was about to turn away. "Go stand next to Takuzo, wait there please." When I took her by the shoulders, she looked at me with confusion.
"Y-yes, Master Isao." She walked over to him excitedly, looking at me the whole way with the anticipation of some grand revelation~.
After her, two incredibly similar-looking guys appeared before me, looking at me with nervousness. Figuring out that they were most likely two brothers took absolutely no effort, so with a sigh, I decided to awaken their powers together, placing both hands on their heads, which they instinctively lowered.
Ugh... I'll need to wash my hands later!
[Momentum]
|Uncommon Ability|
The longer you are moving, the faster you start going, with a maximum of 500%. This limit can be expanded through training.
[Blood Fuel]
|Common Trait|
"Hell is not full." Your blood functions as fuel—high-quality fuel that can be substituted for basically any kind of fuel that any machine would otherwise take, such as gasoline, diesel, electricity, etc.
[Stonesprout]
|Uncommon Ability|
Allows you to sprout constructs of rock and stone from surfaces such as walls and pillars to act as defense, terrain, or to smash your enemies with them.
[Poseidon's Kiss]
|Uncommon Trait|
You are blessed by the god of the seas, Poseidon. You move underwater as naturally as you would above water; in addition, all mundane aquatic life is friendly to you.
"Well, you guys pulled some pretty good powers. Good luck." I waved my hand to get them to step aside quickly, and finally, the last member of their group approached me, meaning I could finally go attend to business instead of standing here touching the heads of various people.
The last to approach was some other kid with dark hair and black circles under his eyes. Seeing his anxious look, I chuckled slightly and did the exact same thing with him as I had done last time with the other people—placed my hand on his head and awakened his powers, making him let out a soft exhale, after which I looked at what kind of powers he had awakened.
[Shadow Hands]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to manifest floating hands made out of shadows that you can control as your own. They can grip, crush, slash, and combine to become large and more powerful.
[Strong]
|Common Trait|
You were always pretty strong, granting you slightly increased strength, allowing you to exert more force with your body.
Well... overall a good set of an ability and a trait, good enough so the guy wouldn't be in the back ranks of fighters.
"Well, that's all, my dears." I clapped my hands, after which I pointed an open palm in their direction. "Now it's all up to you. Takuzo," Takuzo instantly looked my way when I called his name. "Explain everything to them, let them not disappoint me, otherwise it won't be very cool. Thanks, goodbye, I still have things to do!" I waved my hand at them and headed for the exit while they stood there bowing and thanking me and my kindness. Rei quickly caught up to walk on my right side, grabbing my hand in hers halfway out.
I smiled at her and simply headed in the direction where I felt the presence of Kiriko.
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