Ari Toru had never realized how much he took movement for granted until he couldn't do it.
The hospital bed had become his prison—a comfortable, temperature-controlled, medically-supervised prison, but a prison nonetheless. His broken collarbone kept him immobilized, the sling around his arm was, a constant reminder of his body's fragility. Every slight shift sent little lightning bolts of pain through his shoulder. The doctors said he was healing well, that everything was progressing normally, that he just needed to be patient.
Patient. As if patience was something Ari possessed in abundance right now.
Because all he could think about—every waking moment, every time he closed his eyes—was basketball. The system had awakened something in him, some dormant fire that had been smoldering for three years, and now it was a roaring inferno. His fingers itched to hold a ball. His legs wanted to run. His entire body was screaming at him to move, to test this, to see if the impossible thing floating in his vision was real or just an elaborate hallucination his concussed brain had conjured up.
The system itself seemed to find his predicament amusing.
[HOST STATUS: IMMOBILIZED]
[CURRENT ACTIVITY: LYING IN BED LIKE A DEPRESSED POTATO]
[SUGGESTED ACTION: STOP BEING A DEPRESSED POTATO]
"Very helpful," Ari muttered, earning a concerned look from the nurse checking his vitals.
"Did you say something, Toru-kun?"
"Just... talking to myself."
She gave him the kind of smile medical professionals reserve for patients they're slightly worried about. "That's normal after head trauma. Just let us know if you experience any confusion or—"
"I'm fine." Ari forced a smile. "Really."
She didn't look convinced, but she left him alone.
The system pulsed in his vision.
[LYING TO MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS: A BOLD STRATEGY]
[LET'S SEE IF IT PAYS OFF]
"Are you going to be like this all the time?" Ari whispered once the nurse was gone.
[WOULD YOU PREFER A BORING, EMOTIONLESS SYSTEM?]
[BECAUSE I CAN BE BORING]
[INITIALIZING BORING MODE...]
[HOST STATUS: RECOVERING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL MOBILITY: 14-21 DAYS]
[JUST KIDDING, I'M NOT BORING]
[I'M GOING TO MAKE FUN OF YOU A LOT]
[GET USED TO IT]
Despite everything—the pain, the frustration, the complete insanity of his situation—Ari almost laughed. Whatever the Gear was, it had personality. Completely Sentient.. That was either reassuring or deeply concerning.
The days crawled by with evil slowness.
His parents visited constantly—his mother bringing homemade meals that the nurses reluctantly allowed him to eat instead of hospital food, his father arriving each evening with textbooks and study materials. Yes Ari's biggest concern right now was falling behind in chemistry.
"You'll need to catch up once you start at Yoshimura," his father said, setting down another stack of books on the rolling table beside Ari's bed. "The academic standards there are significantly higher than your previous school."
"Dad, I was in a bus accident."
"Which is exactly why we need to make sure you don't fall behind." Hideaki adjusted his reading glasses with the precision of a man who had never fallen behind on anything in his entire life. "Education doesn't pause for inconvenience."
His mother shot his father a look that could have curdled milk. "B...but of course you'll be focused on regaining your strength for now."
Ari watched them bicker with the comfortable familiarity of people who'd been married for twenty years and had perfected the art of loving disagreement. His mother won, as she usually did, and his father retreated with his books, though he did leave one—a chemistry textbook that was thicker than Ari's weak forearms.
Once they were gone, Ari ignored the textbook entirely and pulled out his phone.
Yoshimura High School had an incredibly active social media presence.
Ari had known this intellectually—it was a prestigious school, of course they'd have slick marketing and professional photography—but he hadn't quite grasped the scale of it until he started scrolling through their various accounts.
Instagram. Twitter. TikTok. Even YouTube. The school had accounts on everything, and they were all meticulously curated to project an image of pure .....fucking...status.
The official accounts posted things like campus tours, academic achievements, and carefully staged photos of diverse students studying together in aesthetically pleasing libraries. Professional. Polished. Utterly sanitized.
But the student accounts were something else entirely.
Ari fell down a rabbit hole of hashtags: #YoshimuraLife, #YoshimuraFirstYear, #Yoshimura. Hundreds of posts from current students, all documenting their impossibly photogenic lives with the kind of arrogance you got from attending such a world wide acclaimed school.
Selfies in classrooms with perfect lighting. Group photos at the cafeteria that looked like they could be in magazines. Videos of students laughing together in the quad, everyone impossibly attractive and well-dressed.
" Oh my god ," Ari muttered, scrolling through what had to be the fiftieth post of students posing in their uniforms. "Do they do anything besides take pictures of themselves?"
[GENERATION Z]
[A COHORT SHAPED BY CONSTANT DIGITAL IMMERSION, RESULTING IN RAPID INFORMATION PROCESSING AND ADAPTIVE COMMUNICATION PATTERNS. THEY DISPLAY PRAGMATIC SKEPTICISM TOWARD INSTITUTIONS AFTER GROWING UP AMID GLOBAL INSTABILITY AND CONTRADICTORY INFORMATION STREAMS.
THEIR CULTURAL BEHAVIOR OPTIMIZES FOR VISIBILITY, SPEED, AND SELF-CURATION WITHIN ALGORITHM-DRIVEN ECOSYSTEMS]
[CONCLUSION: EXPERIENCES DON'T EXIST UNLESS DOCUMENTED]
[ALSO: YOU'RE GENERATION Z TOO, SO...]
"I don't do this."
[BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS]
[AND YOU'RE WEIRD]
Ari couldn't even argue with that.
The girls at Yoshimura were... well. Ari had thought the girls at his old school were cute. Normal cute. Attainable cute. The girls at Yoshimura looked like they'd stepped out of fashion magazines. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect faces. Some of them already had thousands of followers on Instagram. A few were clearly actual models, posting professional photoshoots alongside their school selfies.
One girl—username @MikaCecillia—had over 50,000 followers and looked like something out of a his fantasies Another, @AyaneNows, posted aesthetic study notes that were so beautiful Ari forgot to actually read what they said.
"I'm so screwed," he whispered.
[CORRECT]
[YOU ARE A 6'6" AWKWARD BASKETBALL NERD]
[WITH CAT EYES AND TERRIBLE HAIR]
[WHO CANNOT PLAY BASKETBALL]
[YOUR DATING PROSPECTS ARE: BLEAK]
"Thanks for the confidence boost."
[I'M HERE TO PROVIDE REALITY, NOT COMFORT]
[ALSO: KEEP SCROLLING]
[YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE WORST OF IT YET]
Ari kept scrolling, and—it got worse.
The social hierarchy at Yoshimura wasn't subtle. It was blatant, documented, celebrated. The popular kids had more followers, got more likes, appeared in more group photos. The jocks—especially the basketball players—were treated like celebrities. Their posts got hundreds of comments. Girls tagged them in stories. People literally took pictures with them like they were famous.
And then Ari saw him.
The post appeared on his feed organically, boosted by the algorithm because apparently even Instagram knew what would psychologically devastate him: a photo of Yoshimura's basketball team, posed dramatically on their pristine indoor court, all wearing matching warm-up gear that probably cost more than Ari's entire wardrobe.
But the focus of the photo—the person standing center frame, ball in hand, with the kind of casual confidence that couldn't be faked—was their point guard.
@Akihiko Heishi - Draft tryouts coming. Ready to run it back. #YoshimuraBasketball #NationalChamps
Akihiko Heishi looked like he'd been genetically engineered to be a high school basketball star. He was probably 6'1 or higher", lean and athletic, with sharp pretty boy features and blonde hair styled in that effortlessly messy way.
And if you were a boy. You'd know.
Nothing about that hair cut was effortless.
His smile was the kind that made it to toothpaste commercials—bright, confident. He had his arm casually draped over another player's shoulder, the whole pose radiating easy charisma.
The post had 2,847 likes and 316 comments.
Ari scrolled through them:
"Akihiko senpai!!! 😍😍😍"
"Best PG in the prefecture don't @ me"
"Please notice me Tsukuda-kun"
"Going to every home game this year JUST for you"
"Marry me challenge"...."Marry fucking me challenge?!"
Ari stared at his cracked phone screen like what it was showing him wasn't real.
For god's sake their highschool basketball players not status symbols.
His phone light turned a darker shade because he hadn't touched the screen and was just staring at it in bewilderment.
Then he saw his own reflection in the darkened phone. Awkward. Injured. Currently living in a hospital bed.
"Yeah," he said to no one. "I'm definitely screwed."
[AKIHIKO HEISHI]
[AGE: 17, SECOND YEAR]
[POSITION: POINT GUARD]
[ESTIMATED STATS:]
[SCORING: 67/100]
[DEFENSE: 62/100]
[ATHLETICISM: 71/100]
[IQ: 88/100]
[PASSING: 95/100]
[SKILL: 83/100]
[ANALYSIS: SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN YOU AT EVERYTHING]
[ALSO: HAS BETTER HAIR]
"Can you not analyze random people?"
[I CAN ANALYZE ANYONE YOU FOCUS ON]
[IT'S CALLED BEING HELPFUL]
[YOU'RE WELCOME]
[THOUGH THE ABOVE IS JUST AN ESTIMATE. I CANNOT PROVIDE ACCURATE ANALYSIS ON PLAYERS WITHOUT REAL TIME VIEW INTO THEIR PLAY.
YOU WILL HAVE TO SEE OR WATCH HIM PLAY FIRST BEFORE YOU GET A CORRECT CARD ON HIM]
That made sense.....at least in the context of the Gear system. He could probably give estimates or guesses based on analysing muscle definition, posture. Maybe even walking style. But at the end he needed to see someone play or play against them to get a good view on their strengths and weaknesses.
That could come in handy. Very handy.
Alright time to keep oogling Yoshimuras point guards Instagram.
Ari kept scrolling. The guy posted constantly—practice photos, game highlights, candid shots with teammates, the occasional thirst trap that probably had half the school swooning. He had 8,341 followers. Eight thousand. For a high school student..
@Akihiko Heishi - Draft tryouts: April 20th. 30 spots. 200+ hopefuls. If you're a first-year thinking you'll make it... good luck. You'll need it. 😏 #YoshimuraDraft #EarnIt
April 20th.
Ari looked at the date on his phone: March 31st.
Twenty days. He had twenty days.
"System," he said quietly. "When do I get out of here?"
[ESTIMATED DISCHARGE: 7-10 DAYS]
[ESTIMATED FULL RECOVERY: 14-21 DAYS TOTAL]
[MATH: YOU ARE CUTTING IT CLOSE]
"How close?"
[DRAFT TRYOUTS ARE THE BIGGEST EVENT AT YOSHIMURA]
[IT IS NOT JUST BASKETBALL TEAM SELECTION]
[IT IS SOCIAL HIERARCHY DETERMINATION]
[IT IS STATUS ACQUISITION]
[IT IS LITERALLY CALLED 'DRAFT' TRYOUTS]
[BECAUSE THEY TREAT IT LIKE THE NBA DRAFT]
[COMPLETE WITH RANKINGS, PUBLIC EVALUATIONS, AND HUMILIATION]
[IF YOU DON'T MAKE THE TEAM...]
The system paused. As if waiting for Ari to take in the first baradge of messages.
[...YOU'LL BE THE TALL KID WHO FAILED TO BE SIGNIFICANT. THEY WOULD ASK WHY YOU EVEN BOTHERED]
[AT A SCHOOL WHERE BASKETBALL IS EVERYTHING]
[FOR THREE YEARS]
Ari felt his chest tighten. Twenty days to go from "can barely move" to "good enough to compete against 200 other students for 30 spots on a nationally-ranked team."
"....Well that's just unfair," he whispered.
[CORRECT. IT IS UNFAIR]
[BUT THAT JS WHY YOU HAVE ME]
[SO STOP LOOKING AT INSTAGRAM]
[AND START PREPARING]
His father kept bringing books.
Mathematics. English. Chemistry. Japanese literature. Even a physics textbook that Hideaki insisted would be "crucial for understanding force vectors, which applies to basketball if you think about it."
"Dad, I don't think—"
"Education is universal, Ari. Everything connects." His father set down another stack with the finality of a judge's gavel. "Anyways, you'll need something to occupy your time during recovery."
Ari stared at the books like they were a personal insult. But his father wasn't wrong—he needed something to do besides slowly lose his mind. So he started reading.
Chemistry was boring. Math was tolerable. English literature was actually kind of interesting, though Ari suspected that had more to do with his desperation for distraction than the actual content.
But it was during one particularly mind-numbing evening, while trying to understand chemical bonding and failing miserably, that Ari gave up and pulled out his phone to watch basketball instead
He was smart when he wanted to be. Something Ari thought was among the few blessings god gave him. After all, being intelligent 24/7 was just a pain in the butt.
And right now Ari could barely feel his butt. So...it's time to be dumb.
He queued up an old NBA game—Spurs versus Lakers, Tim Duncan's prime—and was about halfway through the second quarter when the system reacted.
[DETECTING: BASKETBALL ANALYSIS ACTIVITY]
[INITIATING: KNOWLEDGE ABSORPTION PROTOCOL]
A new window appeared in Ari's vision:
[STUDYING BASKETBALL: ACTIVE]
[CURRENT FOCUS: TIM DUNCAN - POWER FORWARD]
[ANALYZING TECHNIQUE...]
[BANK SHOT MECHANICS: OBSERVED]
[POST FOOTWORK: OBSERVED]
[DEFENSIVE POSITIONING: OBSERVED]
After 5 more minutes passed.
[SKILL POINTS EARNED: +0.5]
Ari nearly dropped his phone.
"Wait. I can earn skill points from watching basketball?"
[NO]
[FROM STUDYING BASKETBALL, YES]
[PASSIVE WATCHING = NO POINTS]
[ACTIVE ANALYSIS = POINTS]
[YOU MUST TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SEEING]
[NOT JUST CONSUME IT]
Ari's mind raced. He'd spent the last three years watching basketball obsessively, breaking down film like a coach, analyzing plays and movements with the kind of detail most people reserved for their actual jobs. He knew the game inside and out—every technique, every strategy, every subtle adjustment that separated good players from great ones.
He couldn't play it. But he understood it better than almost anyone.
And now that knowledge could translate into actual skill points.
"System," Ari said slowly. "How many points can I earn from studying?"
[DEPENDS ON QUALITY AND DEPTH OF STUDY]
[BASIC OBSERVATION: 0.1-0.5 POINTS]
[DETAILED ANALYSIS: 0.5-2 POINTS]
[BREAKTHROUGH UNDERSTANDING: 2-5 POINTS]
[NOTE: DIMINISHING RETURNS APPLY]
[SO IF YOU JUST WATCH THE SAME GAME 100 TIMES]
[YOU GET NADA]
Ari looked at the stack of textbooks his father had brought, then at his phone, then back at the textbooks.
"Dad," he called out the next time his father visited. "I need different books."
Hideaki looked pleased. "I knew you'd come around to—"
"Basketball books. Film analysis. Biographies of players. Anything about basketball technique, history, strategy."
His father's pleased expression faltered. "Ari, I really think you should focus on—"
"Dad." Ari met his father's eyes with that intense, cat-like stare that made people uncomfortable. "Please."
There was a long silence. His mother, who'd been quietly arranging flowers in a vase, paused to watch them.
Finally, Hideaki sighed. "You're as stubborn as your mother."
"Oh I am not stubborn", Michiko protested with a laugh.
But his father pulled out his phone, already searching. "What specifically do you need?"
Over the next three days, Ari's hospital room transformed into a basketball study archive.
His father, once committed to something, approached it with the same methodical intensity he brought to his accounting work and to taking care of his family. Oh did the books arrive alright: biographies of Jordan, Kobe, Duncan, Bird. Technical manuals on shooting form, footwork, defensive positioning. Even some obscure texts on basketball philosophy and the mental game.
( Because apparently the system recommended physical hard copy reading and now eating up digital Wikipedia)
His mother brought her laptop so Ari could enjoy basketball on a larger screen than his phone which got a broken screen from the accident
And Ari studied like his life depended on it. Because, in a way, it did.
He started with power forwards—his supposed position. Tim Duncan first, the greatest power forward in history. Ari watched countless hours of Duncan film, analyzing his bank shot motion, his post footwork, his defensive positioning, his understated brilliance....that hairline
[STUDYING: TIM DUNCAN]
[BANK SHOT TECHNIQUE: ANALYZED]
[+1.2 SKILL POINTS]
[POST DEFENSE: ANALYZED]
[+0.8 SKILL POINTS]
But something felt off. Duncan was incredible, but he was also 6'11" and built like a truck. His game was predicated on size, strength, and fundamentals that worked because he could physically impose his will on opponents.
Ari was 6'6" and 78 kilograms. He was tall, but not that tall. And he was slender, almost lanky. He didn't have Duncan's physical tools.
He tried Karl Malone next—the Mailman, the second-greatest power forward ever and in Ari's opinion better than Duncan in raw baskeball ability. Malone was more aggressive, more athletic than Duncan, a scoring machine who combined power with skill.
[STUDYING: KARL MALONE]
[PICK AND ROLL EXECUTION: OBSERVED]
[+0.6 SKILL POINTS]
[PHYSICAL PLAY STYLE: OBSERVED]
[COMPATIBILITY: LOW]
[REASONING: HOST PHYSIQUE INSUFFICIENT FOR THIS PLAYSTYLE]
"What?" Ari frowned at the system display. "Why is compatibility low?"
[KARL MALONE: 6'9", 250 LBS OF MUSCLE]
[HIS GAME REQUIRED OVERWHELMING PHYSICALITY]
[YOU: 6'6", 172 LBS OF... OPTIMISM?]
[YOU COULD STUDY HIM FOR YEARS]
[YOU'LL NEVER BE PHYSICALLY CAPABLE OF PLAYING LIKE HIM]
[DIFFERENT BUILD = DIFFERENT PLAYSTYLE]
[OBVIOUS, REALLY]
Ari sat back against his pillows, frustrated. The system was right, of course. He'd been so focused on studying power forwards because that's what his height suggested he should be, he hadn't considered whether their playstyles actually fit him.
He needed to think differently.
That night, after his parents had left and the hospital had settled into its quiet evening rhythm, Ari opened mom's laptop and started researching basketball positions and archetypes more broadly.
Point guards. Shooting guards. Small forwards. Power forwards. Centers.
But beyond positions, there were roles. Playstyles. The way different players approached the game regardless of their official designation.
Playmakers. Defenders. Rebounders. Slashers.
And then: Scorers.
Ari had always loved scorers. The players who could get a bucket from anywhere, who made offense look like art. Michael Jordan, the greatest scorer ever. Kobe Bryant, who'd modeled his entire game after Jordan and somehow made it his own. Kevin Durant, who at 6'10" moved like a guard and could score from literally anywhere on the court.
Tracy McGrady. George Gervin. Larry Bird.
Players who weren't necessarily the strongest or the fastest, but who could score on anyone through pure skill, creativity, and an unshakeable confidence in their own ability.
"System," Ari said quietly. "What if I don't want to be a traditional power forward?"
[ELABORATE]
"What if I want to be a scorer? Pure scorer. Someone who can get buckets from anywhere, regardless of position."
The system was quiet for a moment—the longest pause Ari had experienced from it.
[INTERESTING CHOICE]
[ANALYSIS: YOUR PHYSICAL STATS ARE TERRIBLE]
[BUT YOUR IQ IS ALREADY 67/100]
[YOU UNDERSTAND BASKETBALL INTELLECTUALLY]
[YOU JUST CAN'T EXECUTE IT... YET]
[A SCORING-FOCUSED BUILD WOULD PRIORITIZE:]
[BALL HANDLING]
[FOOTWORK]
[MID RANGE OR ISOLATION SKILL]
[SCORING CREATIVITY]
[A WIDE ARRAY OF USABLE MOVESETS OR A VERSITILITY MULTI SITUATIONAL MOVE OVER PURE PHYSICALITY]
[IT WOULD TAKE LONGER TO DEVELOP]
[BUT IT WOULD FIT YOUR BUILD BETTER]
[IF THATS WHAT YOU WANT THEN THATS WHAT YOU WANT]
"Thanks."
"So I should just study scorers?"
[YOU SHOULD STUDY THE RIGHT SCORERS]
[PLAYERS WHO SUCCEEDED WITH BASKETBALL ARTISTRY OVER PHYSICALITY]
[PLAYERS WHO DOMINATED THROUGH TECHNIQUE]
Ari's fingers flew across his keyboard, pulling up footage. Michael Jordan first—but not the dunking, athletic side of the GOAT we all knew. Not the one who dunked from the free throw line in the 1988 slam dunk contest.
No it was the Jordan who used footwork, fadeaways, post moves and jumpers to literally kill every single opponent that came his way.
[STUDYING: MICHAEL JORDAN]
[FADEAWAY MECHANICS: ANALYZING...]
[MID-RANGE MASTERY: ANALYZING...]
[+2.1 SKILL POINTS]
[COMPATIBILITY: HIGH]
[THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING]
Ari felt a surge of excitement. He moved on to Kevin Durant—7 feet tall but moved like a guard, could shoot over anyone, had one of the purest shooting forms in basketball history.
[STUDYING: KEVIN DURANT]
[SHOOTING FORM: ANALYZING...]
[PULL-UP JUMPER: ANALYZING...]
[+1.8 SKILL POINTS]
[COMPATIBILITY: HIGH]
Kobe Bryant. Tracy McGrady with his relentless rim pressure.. George Gervin's finger roll and mid-range game. Larry Bird's basketball IQ and shooting.
Hours passed. Ari barely noticed. His parents would have been horrified at how little he'd slept, but Ari was possessed by something he hadn't felt in years: purpose.
Modern players too. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with his flexible automatic ultra instinct isolation bag.
Luka Dončić, who forced defenders to follow the pace he demanded. "Gosh I love Luka".
Even Austin Reaves, who was a fearless shot maker who could score from practically anywhere other than the typical aggressive dunk on the rim.
[CURRENT SKILL POINTS: 23.7]
[YOU'VE BEEN STUDYING FOR 47 HOURS STRAIGHT]
[WITH BREAKS FOR FOOD AND BATHROOM]
[THIS IS EITHER DEDICATION OR INSANITY]
[OFFCOURSE]
[I HAVE AN INSANE HOST]
"I need to spend these points," Ari said, pulling up his system interface. "Show me what I can upgrade."
[CURRENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE:]
The system displayed a menu:
[PHYSICAL STATS:]
POWER: 23/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
STAMINA: 31/100 [COST: 1.5 POINTS PER +1]
VERTICAL: 18/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
SPEED: 35/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[BASKETBALL STATS:]
SCORING: 12/100 [COST: 3 POINTS PER +1]
DEFENSE: 15/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
ATHLETICISM: 22/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
IQ: 67/100 [COST: 4 POINTS PER +1]
PASSING: 28/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
SKILL: 8/100 [COST: 3 POINTS PER +1]
[SPECIAL OPTIONS:]
ACCELERATED RECOVERY [COST: 15 POINTS] [REDUCES REMAINING RECOVERY TIME BY 60%]
Ari stared at the special option. Fifteen points would take most of what he'd earned, but if it cut his recovery time by 60%...
The doctors had said another 7-10 days in the hospital, then probably another week of rest at home. That was 14-17 days total. If he could cut that by 60%, he'd be recovered in about 6 days.
April 20th was in 20 days. If he recovered in 6, that gave him 14 days to actually train before tryouts.
"System, if I buy accelerated recovery, will it be noticeable? Will the doctors—"
[IT WILL APPEAR AS NATURALLY ACCELERATED HEALING]
[FASTER THAN EXPECTED, BUT NOT SUPERNATURAL]
[DOCTORS WILL BE SURPRISED BUT WILL ATTRIBUTE IT TO:]
[YOUTH, GOOD GENETICS, POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MEDICAL MYSTERIES]
[HUMANS ARE VERY GOOD AT RATIONALIZING]
Ari took a deep breath. This was it. The moment he committed to this insanity.
"Do it. Purchase accelerated recovery."
[CONFIRMING PURCHASE...]
[ACCELERATED RECOVERY: ACTIVATED]
[REMAINING SKILL POINTS: 8.7]
[INITIATING ENHANCED HEALING PROTOCOL...]
The change was immediate and overwhelming. Warmth flooded through Ari's body, starting from his broken collarbone and radiating outward. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it was intense—like his bones and muscles were suddenly working overtime, cells dividing and knitting together at accelerated rates.
He gasped, gripping the bed sheets.
[RELAX]
[HEALING IN PROGRESS]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL RECOVERY: 5 DAYS, 17 HOURS]
[TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT ANYMORE]
[OR DO, THAT'S ENTERTAINING TOO]
" Holy shit ".
THE END.