When is she coming back? - Shoji yawned as he laid there on the couch, switching channels in boredom. Then, out of the blue, a girl slid the window open from the outside and casually stepped in the room. Shoji noticed, but all he did was just hold his hand up and made a waving gesture to welcome her.
"Hmm? What's with that reaction huh? You should be glad that I'm home five minutes earlier than usual, ya know?" The girl then got on the couch swiftly, as Shoji sat up, leaving her some space.
"Oh yes my queen Ryo! Let this lowly peasant get you some water." Shoji smirked at her.
"Just shut up already! So, have you seen the news?" Ryo then grabbed the TV remote.
"What is it? I've been reading System novels all day."
"I can't with you… The fact that a System User is sitting right next to you right now." She sighed, changing the channels.
"Hey, reading those is my passion alright? It's not like I can just be a hunter…"
"Yeah yeah~"
As they went on with their conversation, Ryo reached the News channel on the TV. The screen was showing a scene of a guy getting arrested with multiple high ranking Hunters around him.
"Jeez… What happened?" Shoji leaned closer to the TV.
"That's an Anomaly, they've been a hassle to deal with lately…"
"Huh? Ya'll giving criminals cool nicknames now?
"Dumbass! We call them that because of the unusual skills that they possess… and because of the shit they do in the Dungeons as well."
"Hmm. What if those skills are simply just special skills that we don't know about yet?"
"That's… most unlikely. Humanity has already studied the System for so long now… those skills that the Anomalies possess don't align with any Class that exists in the System."
Then, the News' reporter started announcing, which caught the two's attention. "Hold on… It is confirmed that the Anomalies don't have a 'system' integrated in them. Though there's no way to actually tell since the system is only visible to its own user, we would appreciate any report sent to us. So please, If you raise suspicion against anyone who might be an anomaly, head to the nearest Hunter guild…"
"I bet they tortured the dude…" Shoji then stood up, stretching himself, not seeming to care about what was going on.
"Well, you might not be too far off… Anyways, shouldn't you be getting a job? You're in college, bum."
"Hey, it's easy for you to say that, I still have… responsibilities at home. And you're already a Hunter."
"Well, I can just sign you up as a porter for my team~" Ryo winked at him, as she sat there playing with her white silky hair.
"To hell with that-"
Out of nowhere, Shoji's body started to lose its balance. And before anyone even got to react, the apartment that they lived in started to collapse, and cracks started to appear everywhere. Out of panic, Ryo reached her hand out to Shoji, but it was too late.
"For Fuck's sake!" Ryo screamed helplessly, as her childhood friend fell down with pieces of concrete.
The shouting faded away, and the last thing Shoji saw was Ryo floating in the air with a terrified expression. The moment Shoji hit the first floor of the apartment, his vision turned blurry and crimson red, bones started cracking. What Shoji saw wasn't just pieces of the building about to fall on top of him, but also an ambiguous shadow figure, standing idly at the center of his vision, though that didn't stop him from being buried in concrete and blood.
I didn't even get to be a Hunter…
The boy couldn't hear or feel anything, just letting his vision slowly slipped away.
Before he completely died out, a deep but calming voice rang in his head.
That's good enough.
15 minutes passed by, the sounds of ambulances and footsteps echoed the place, as Ryo and the paramedics tried to find bodies under the mess. Ryo with the sword on her hands, smashing all the pieces away relentlessly.
"Shoji!" she yelled breathlessly, since she didn't stop looking for him the second the accident occurred.
Just as she was about to give up and thought to herself - There's no way he could survive that… she sensed a Mana core - similar to that of a Hunter. In desperation, she dug up the area where the mana's presence is the strongest, and what laid under all that concrete was Shoji, with bones should be broken but weren't, and with blood splattered everywhere.
"Over here!" Ryo sighed in relief, despite knowing something was not normal. She couldn't help but to tear up at the face of her best friend still being alive.
Just in a few seconds, a Hunter appeared in front of them, seemingly out of breath. She then kneeled down next to the injured body of Shoji, as she created a green light beam from the palms of her hands and immediately started the healing.
"It seems like one person managed to survive… Thank God- Huh?" The Healer stopped the healing in an instant, since there wasn't anything left to recover. "But it should take way longer…" she murmured, then thought to herself - Wait, how did this guy even stay intact under this mass…
Without letting the Healer finish the thought process, Ryo already got down on her knees and she wrapped her arms around Shoji, tightly. After wiping her tears away, she flew up with him in her arms and looked down at the Healer.
"I'll take him to the hospital." Her voice seemed shaky, but she flew away anyway.
Time flies. A week passed by with news all over the place about a building breaking down with no trace of an external force. Shoji, after a long time, finally opened his eyes. He's met with the white ceiling and the sound of a machine beeping next to him. Wait what… How… But the moment he moved an inch of his body, he felt his muscles twitch, and all the pain deep inside his bones started acting up. He started screaming violently with his hands holding onto his chest, where his heart pumped at an abnormal fast pace. His eyes were then all rolled up, the internal pain intensified as if all of his nerves were getting reattached at the same time. What… in… the… actual… fuck? His teeth clenched, and he stayed in this agonizing state for more than a minute, until the pain gradually faded away.
"What even was that…?" Shoji regained his breath steadily, as he felt his heart start to go back to its normal state. And before he could even clear his mind up, he heard a bang on the door. This time, the one causing him to have a heart attack wasn't the pain, but Ryo.
"My goodness! You're back!?" Ryo ran towards his bed, holding a bag of something. She then proceeded to get on top of him and just hold his head firmly.
"Argh- Be careful! Anyways… Hey Ryo"
"Hey… How is it going now?" Ryo stayed in the same position while leaning back a little. "They said you've already recovered a week ago… Which is weird."
"Yeah well, I guess I'm good now? Jeez, what even happened? How am I alive?" Shoji replied reluctantly, pondering whether he should tell her about the pain or not.
"Well, from what I remember… It might be because you awakened that night."
"I… Awakened!?" He sat up, placing his hands on her shoulder with a genuine eager expression.
"Yeah~ Isn't that what you've always wanted? I've been feeling that immense mana in you for the last week already. Now hurry up and open the status window big boy!"
"Oh hell yeah!" He closed his eyes, then looked around for a while, then back at her in confusion. "How do you… do that?"
"Huh? It's like peeing your pants intentionally. You just do it…"
"Right… here we go…" He stayed still for a while.
"So~ Did you see it?"
"Y-yeah…"
Fuck… where is the status?