Path to Strength

With regret on his eyelids, Yuji opened his eyes with difficulty. His head hurt, and he felt as if a truck had hit him. With slow movements he ran his hand over the back of his head, and felt the bruise, but except for the headache, there didn't seem to be anything else wrong.

Relieved, a sigh escaped his lips. The last thing he wanted was damage to his spine, already two powerful blows he had suffered in the same place.

Feeling the place where he was lying soft, confused, he ran his eyes around the room, realizing it was a sparsely decorated room. This immediately put him on alert as he sat on the edge of the bed and eyed the place cautiously. 'Shit, who brought me to this place? Not even Osanai, Akira or Shiki knew of my location.' The boy wondered with confusion, and determined to find out who was the person who had carried him to a bed, he got up from the bed and turned to the bedroom door.

Tic.

Yuji's attention immediately turned to the lock, which seemed about to open the door. With his mind on alert, the boy prepared to move toward anyone who was on the other side of the door. The veins in his feet jumped as they lightly sank the floor of the room under his weight.

When the door opened, the boy was about to explode, but stopped himself at the last second, when his eyes landed on a young woman who entered the room.

"Oh, looks like you woke up!" The woman spoke, opening a smile full of pointed teeth that reminded Yuji of shark teeth.

The woman had black hair that fell over her face, and eyes that could only be described as lunatic, and with her smile, it only served to complement her appearance with her eyes. Despite these traits, the woman in front of the boy still emanated charm, mainly due to her messy clothes, which blatantly revealed her cleavage.

"!" Yuji suddenly shook his head, removing his thoughts from the gutter, soon turning his attention to the unknown woman, who was vaguely familiar to the teenager. He felt as if he had seen the woman somewhere before. 'Maybe she's an anime character.'

"It's about time, I thought you would sleep in my bed forever!" She spoke without removing the smile from her face, this irritating Yuji, who frowned while still maintaining caution in front of that woman.

"Who are you?" Yuji asked with authority in his tone, unconsciously letting some of his aura leak from his body.

The woman, who watched this closely, kept a smile on her face as she clearly seemed to be encouraged by the boy's action. 'This is exactly what I was looking for!' The woman thought as she felt the boy's aura.

"Boy, my name is Togo Tomari." The woman, now known as Tomari, introduced herself with ease, even in the face of the teenager's oppressive aura.

Yuji, who heard that woman's name, couldn't help but think, 'Togo Tomari... Tomari, Tomari...' He repeated several times, before something clicked in his mind. 'She is one of the members of the Kengan association, who had that blind mercenary as a fighter!' Remembering where he knew the woman from, he grew even more wary, his eyes moving around frantically as he tried to find any sign of that man. Having seen his fight against the madman who takes pleasure in pain, Yuji knew he was a dangerous warrior, and if his quick visits to the manga weren't wrong, he was also strong enough to beat Sekibayashi. To face someone like him in his condition would be suicide.

Strangely enough, Tomari concluded that the boy's behavior was due to his nervousness at suddenly finding himself in a completely unfamiliar place. Being cautious was not wrong, and because of that, nothing else crossed the woman's mind, after all, there was no way a quarrelsome 15-year-old teenager could know that she was a feared arms merchant.

"What do you want from me?" Yuji asked, visibly relaxing, but still cautious around him, after all, Tomari's fighter in the Kengan tournament was a mercenary known for assassinations. Stealth would definitely be in his skill tree.

Tomari maintained her shark-like smile at the boy's question, her eyes glinting dangerously as she opened her mouth to speak. "Cutting to the chase, aren't you? Well, I don't like wasting time either, after all, time is money."

Yuji couldn't help but roll his eyes at these words. The boy immediately realized what kind of woman Tomari was, and she was not the kind he would get along with.

"Skipping all the winding up..." Tomari stared Yuji straight in the eye, her smile widening even more as she crossed her arms. "I want you to fight for me."

"..."

"..."

Yuji processed the woman's words for a few seconds, and soon understood. He thought about making some joke, but refrained, and just stared at Tomari strangely.

"What's in it for me?" Yuji jumped straight to the conditions. He knew about the Kengan fights, and although he couldn't really reveal that, because it would arouse suspicion, he wasn't in the mood to ask about the reasons for the fights at the moment. (More like the author was lazy to summarize what could easily be read on the wiki or by watching the first episodes of Kengan Ashura)

Tomari clearly found it odd that the boy jumped straight to the conditions. He didn't even ask what the fights meant! But although strange, that couldn't upset the woman, after all, the easier the boy accepted, the easier she could win fights and earn money.

"Money, a lot-"

"18% of whatever we earn."

Yuji, who heard the woman begin, immediately interrupted her as he cast his own requirements. He knew that the stakes in the Kengan fights were no small thing, even 10% of the shares of a huge company could make him money for life. If he could get that as a requirement, his empowerment could easily be accelerated. He needed this, considering the mix of worlds he was in.

Tomari, who heard the boy's words, widened her eyes as she stared at him. From his tone and posture, she knew Yuji was serious, but there was no way she could accept requirements like that. To hand over 18% of her earnings to a teenager? She wasn't crazy enough for that.

"No." She replied with authority. "We can decide on other requirements."

Yuji cracked a slight smile at that, and with all the acting power he could muster, made the interest disappear from his eyes, his attention turning to the surroundings of the room. A member of the Kengan association was never going to be someone simple, and Yuji as someone shrewd, knew that Tomari, to bring him directly to her, should at least know him well enough to consider him as a strong fighter for the Kengan tournament. With what little he had of the woman's personality, and from what he remembered of the anime, he knew that Tomari was a person who would not act on impulse. 'To bring me here, she must consider me an asset.'

"To bring an unconscious teenager to your room, you must know my strength well enough to consider me worthy of being your fighter." Yuji slowly turned his gaze to the woman. "Then we can accept these requirements or I can leave this room in a heartbeat."

Tomari's expression changed, her expression frowning as she gritted her teeth in frustration. 'Naughty brat.' She thought. Having considered Yuji only as a strong delinquent, she hadn't thought about the possibility that the teenager was intelligent and mature enough to understand her situation and put her up against the wall in seconds. The teenager's insight unsettled her for a second, after all, although it left a bad taste in her mouth to admit, the boy had got what he said right. Her old fighter ended up being put in the hospital after a fight against the Fangs of Metsudo, and she had a fight in a few weeks, if she didn't find a fighter by the time of the fight, she would have to quit, and she refused to let that happen. Her hope was to see Yuji fight the Senju girl in the B1 arena, the state he entered after being partially knocked out fascinated her, and the ease with which he beat the girl served to put him at the top of her priorities.

But to hand over 18% on a platter? She couldn't just accept that, as much of a lunatic as she was, her business was a thing she managed with zeal.

Yuji observed the woman's indecision, and determined to end this discussion with checkmate, the boy walked past her in slow steps, walking toward the door. "If you won't accept, I can leave."

A few seconds passed, and with the boy leaving the room, Tomari's voice suddenly caught his attention, causing him to stop.

"15%" She spoke almost spitting out such words, but Yuji didn't care about that, and just smiled as his back was turned to the woman.

"That's exactly what I wanted." Yuji turned to Tomari and raised his hand for a shake, a shit-eating grin on his face that only served to irritate the woman.

With a sigh, the woman shook the teenager's hand.

"Tomorrow a fight will take place, and you will come with me to watch while I explain to you how things work. The sooner you become familiar with it, the better."

Yuji agreed and turned to leave, but before he left, he stopped at the door.

"Oh, and the one who will sign the contract is a friend of mine, after all, I'm only a 15-year-old teenager." Yuji smiled innocently, this causing a vein to pop out on the woman's forehead. "And I don't have to tell you my address, do I? You probably already know."

In the blink of an eye, Yuji was gone, leaving an angry Togo in the living room of her apartment. "If only that guy who defeated that brat hadn't disappeared!"

.

.

.

Staring ahead of him, Yuji walked down the street while looking at his arms. After leaving Tomari's house, he immediately noticed an increase in strength throughout his body. His speed was greater, and his grip was at least twice as powerful . 'Has this system improved my growth even more?'

Curious, he mentalized "Status," causing a floating panel to appear in front of him.

[Congratulations! The host faced Ohma Tokita and came out alive to tell the tale! Take a consolation prize, loser!]

[Reward for completing, "Survive Ashura!"]

[Permanent buff on all attributes]]

[Skill unknown]

"Oh, so the system sends quests that provide prizes! But from the looks of it, I can't really see those quests.... Wait, what the hell kind of message is that?!"

"Mommy, that boy is talking to himself."

As Yuji walked along, people found it strange that he was talking to himself, and realizing his mistake, he immediately shut up.

'Well, let's ignore that message and see my status right away.'

[Status]

Name: Yuji Shinakawa [Yamashita]

Age: 15

Strength: A+++

Durability: S+++

Stamina: S+

Speed: S++

Intelligence: S+++

Potential: ????

. . .

Yuji's eyes widened at the sight of his new status, completely surprised at such an evolution. If the system gave him awards even for each heavyweight he fights, he would soon become invincible, after all, with these new statuses, Yuji believes that now he could at least stand up to Ohma, even if only physically. Since the boy realized that in the matter of skill, Ohma was above him, but that was because the techniques of this world allowed things like hypnosis, hardening of muscles, and even acceleration of the body almost like lightning. He would need to be creative, and create a completely different style so that he could grow in this world.

'Fighting using the concepts of my old world can make me at most an average fighter in this world.'

Having lost to Ohma so easily, Yuji realized that he urgently needed to improve. Determined to create a completely new fighting style, adapted to deal with the problems of this world, the boy walked towards his home with a determined look on his face, completely forgetting about the unknown skill he had just gained.

But because it was an unknown skill, the boy ended up not being very interested, leading him to forget it more easily. But since he couldn't know what it was, he could just wait, after all, it couldn't be something bad, could it?

[???]

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[Advance]