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[Examination]
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…
The doctor in front of them stared at the pair with wide eyes, his glasses almost falling from the shock. "You say young Takahashi here awakened his Quirk? At 15 years old, nonetheless?"
"That's right, tell him, kid!" Seiji—now out of his monkey costume and sporting a simple white t-shirt and black shorts—patted Taka's back, laughing loudly as he did so.
The teenager simply gave the man a look before nodding at the doctor. "Yes, I got it yesterday."
Before the doctor could ask about its function, Taka pointed his hand at an empty coffee mug lying on the doctor's desk, and, in an instant, the mug flew straight into his grasp, making the doctor widen his eyes and lean forward to inspect the mug and Taka's hand more closely.
"So it's true! What an unprecedented case! From the looks of it, it's some kind of magnetism, telekinesis, or cup-attracting Quirk. Do you know what might have triggered it, young Takahashi?"
Taka scratched his cheek, acting clueless. "Not really. It just came to me when I was having breakfast."
Technically, he wasn't lying. The Quirk—if it could be considered one, as he honestly had his doubts about what kind of existence the system truly was—had come along right the instant he awakened his previous life's memories, which had been mid-way through breakfast.
The doctor scratched his chin in wonder. "How strange… Maybe it needed some sort of time requirement… Is controlling cups from afar all it can do, or is it not limited only to cups? If so, how much weight can you control?"
Taka raised an eyebrow.
For a moment, he considered what he was about to say.
Should he reveal the full potential of his new Quirk, or should he just downplay it?
He recalled his previous life's memories about this world. There was supposedly some evil potato-headed guy in a suit out there looking for powerful Quirks to add to his collection.
So, in hindsight… it didn't seem like a good idea.
Still, his Quirk made flexing his source of power, so acting like a weakling would be a wasted opportunity to show off and gain some aura.
'Let's just… show what I can do at the moment. I'll leave its potential out of the talk for now.'
With that plan set in mind, Taka turned to the doctor, his voice cool and his expression impassive.
"Is there somewhere I can show you?"
The doctor instantly perked up. "Ah, yes. We have a room with equipment specialized for this!"
He then proceeded to lead Taka and Seiji to what looked like a mental asylum room… only bigger, and filled with all sorts of tools and devices.
"Over there we have the barbells, they come in different shapes, so pick whichever you like."
Taka nodded, and keeping his mysterious and enigmatic silence, he made his way to the barbells.
Once in front of them, however, he paused.
'Crap…' His eyebrow twitched.
He just realized that he didn't know which one to pick.
He hadn't measured the exact amount of weight each aura point allowed him to lift.
For all he knew, he might pick the 10 kg one, and he'd fold instantly.
He had only used it on a pen, after all.
'It's a gamble…' He mused, his eyes inspecting each barbell with an unsure look, before closing them enigmatically… Only to open them the next second with determination.
'But so is life, I'm going all in bitch!'
Right after, he opened his status page and began moving most of his stats to Aura Projection, boosting the stat from 79 to a whopping 199 points, while leaving both his strength in the 20s and his defense on the 10s, neither on 0, as he didn't want to collapse mid-examination.
As expected, a wave of weakness hit Taka's body right after that, but he dismissed it quickly. He could still stand, after all—and that was all he needed.
The next second, Taka raised his hand with the demeanor of a king commanding his subjects, and pointed it at one of the biggest barbells there.
The one with the big 500 kg imprinted on it. (About 1k pounds)
And so, with his objective locked in, Taka gave the order.
To move.
'LET'S GOOOOOOO...—!!!'
…
'—OOOOooo… ooo… oo… damnit, move!'
Sadly, even after a few seconds had passed, the barbell did not budge.
No matter how much he pressed, it didn't even do as much as twitch.
Seeing he had met his first insurmountable wall, Taka relaxed his grip on the tool and discreetly began moving his hand to a less heavy one.
Hopefully, the two behind him wouldn't notice he had failed pathetically.
And so, he tried with 250 kg.
It twitched, but didn't budge.
'Damnit.'
He moved his hand again and pointed it at the 150 kg one.
It moved a bit more, but ultimately, it still remained glued to the floor.
'Come on... how come 200 points is actually this weak…?'
He eyed the 100 kg one with hesitant eyes and aimed his hand at it.
'This one's moving!'
Taka's eyes brightened in delight as he felt the object finally budging, though he kept his composed face.
Then, he began lifting it more properly into the air… albeit, with still a lot of difficulty—something he didn't show on his face.
As a result, after a few seconds of it rising into the air, the weight began swaying and moving around in the air like a UFO.
"Hoh...!"
Seeing the 100 kg barbell fly through the air with fluidity, the doctor nodded, surprised.
"Amazing, it seems you got a really good Quirk!"
Seiji, by his side, nodded with a grin. "That's at least an adult man he is lifting."
"Can you lift more?" While Taka struggled to keep the weight on the air, the doctor threw such a question as if it was completely natural while he tapped on a notepad, probably writing information about it.
'You want more…?' Taka blinked, and sweatdropped with a troubled expression.
It seemed his stunt hadn't been impressive enough to get him some aura.
This guy was expecting even more than this!
'Damn.' Taka clicked his tongue. Unfortunately, it seemed he'd have to swallow his pride this time and walk home with no gains. This was his limit, after all.
"No, this is as much as I can lift."
The doctor nodded after hearing his words, but he didn't stop with the questions.
"Is there any reason why? Does your Quirk stop responding if you go beyond your limit? Or do you suffer any pain if you do?"
Taka considered for a moment before deciding it didn't matter much if he revealed a bit.
It'd make for a more believable Quirk, having "weaknesses" and all that.
"... Well, the more I push it to its limit, the weaker my body begins to feel."
It wasn't the whole truth, but it was enough truth for the moment.
"Oh? So your Quirk works by consuming physical force? How long does your body take to return to its normal state, then?"
Taka released the weight, causing it to fall to the padded floor. Then, he began closing and opening his fist, as if demonstrating he still had strength in him—of course, he moved all his stats to their normal state for that.
"As soon as I stop using it, or diminish the force I'm applying, the strength returns to my body."
"I see, a very interesting Quirk indeed." The doctor nodded as he wrote on the pad. Next, he signalled Taka and Seiji to follow him. "Come, I'll do you some more tests. After that, you can go back home."
Taka nodded with an uncaring face.
Though…
'Damn, he looks like he sees this stuff daily.' He discreetly glared at the doctor's unimpressed face and heaved a sigh. 'Maybe I overestimated my chances of standing out in a place that reviews all sorts of Quirks daily…'
Then, as the doctor opened the door of the room, leading them somewhere else, Taka reviewed his status page once more.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: 50
▸ Defense: 100
▸ Aura Projection: 79
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Total Aura: 79
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Skills: None
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
'It seems I have a long way to go before I can begin flexing my skills.'
Maybe he'd need about 500 points before thinking about impressing anyone.
…
°
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|An hour later…|
…
-Cling-
Both Seiji and Taka walked out of the clinic, their expressions completely different from each other.
"Who'd have thought you'd get a Quirk one day? Eh, Taka? It seems you can finally stop using the excuse that you don't get girls because you're Quirkless."
"Shut up."
"Hahaha—no, but really, you get your Quirk, and you're already acting all serious and broody. What happened to the little prick that I've been taking care of until now that liked to oogle at my porn magazines when I wasn't looking?"
Taka squinted his eyes, stuffing both hands in his pockets coolly. "You are misremembering. This is how I've always been."
Seiji simply looked at him with skepticism, arching one of his eyebrows to its limit. "Sure… Though your internet history doesn't say the same."
Taka stopped for a moment, turning to him with a blank expression. "Wha—what do you mean?"
The older man grinned. "I'm the one who pays the bills, kid. I can get that information pretty easily."
"..." The young aura farmer seemed a bit lost after receiving that information.
"You have a refined taste if I say so. Big tittied—?"
"Argh, shut up already!" Fortunately, that seemed to have done the job of snapping him out of it.
Seiji laughed out loud with a mocking grin. "Hahaha! Come on, kid, I just wanted to say that I almost can't believe we are not related by blood. We are not so different, you and I. You see, the other day, I almost got a date with a heroine with huge—"
"I don't care!"
Seiji glanced at Taka with suspicion in his gaze. "What, are you in your edgy phase? Maybe your Quirk needed you to enter puberty or something like that to finally kick in."
Taka gritted his teeth. He was trying to stay in character, for god's sake.
Though, that story about the heroine sounded really interesting…
—No!
Fortunately, it seemed Seiji was finally gonna stop fooling around, his tone turning a bit more serious.
"Anyway, kid, since you now have a Quirk, any plans for the future?"
Taka glanced at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well, when I asked if you wanted to be a hero like other kids, you said that as long as you remained Quirkless, that'd be a waste of time."
Taka raised an eyebrow before looking away, reminiscing about those times.
'I was like 7 at that time, this guy sure has a good memory.'
In the end, though, he didn't see any reason to hide his new intentions.
"Sure, I was planning on trying to go to U.A." He replied, keeping his tone casual and calm.
"Damn kid, you're striking high!"
Taka simply nodded.
-Whack!-
"...?!"
Suddenly, he got slapped hard on the back, making him wince slightly and look back at Seiji with dissatisfaction.
A look that the man disregarded without a care. "Hahahaha! It seems you finally decided to follow my steps, huh? Do you want me to contact the hero agency I work at so that they can make you a costume similar to mine? You can try and be Super Monkey Jr!"
"Please don't."
Seiji clicked his tongue. "You don't know what's good, kid."
After the guy's words, black lines appeared on Taka's face, his face turning faintly grim. 'Ain't no way I'm going out on a costume similar to yours, that'd give me like -1,000,000 aura points the instant I get seen or recorded.'
Honestly, he simply couldn't figure out how this guy even had fans. His monkey costume was lame as hell.
It was an outright terrorist attack on decency and dignity.
"Anyway, be sure to clear your schedule for all evenings." Seiji's voice suddenly chimed from the side, snapping Taka out of his thoughts.
He looked at him, confused. "Huh? Why?"
Seiji grinned, though, unlike previous times, this one seemed to hold a hint of savagery on it. "What do you mean, why? You heard the doctor, your Quirk seems to run on your physical force, so if you want to have any chance at U.A., you better start training right now so you don't get whooped like you did today by that 500 kg barbell!"
Taka's face darkened. "So you noticed…"
Seiji patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, so I'm gonna be personally training you from now on until the exam's time comes, so that you don't screw up when you're at U.A.'s practical exam."
Taka grumbled, annoyed at how abrupt this was.
Sadly, Seiji didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"Be grateful, for I, the great Super Monkey, am gonna be personally mentoring you, kid!"
Taka looked at the endless sky with a vacant expression.
"This sucks…"
…
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: The conversion rate in terms of lifting capacity is 1 aura point in Strength and Aura Projection is about 1 pound, or 0,5 kg. At least, that's how I get an estimation of what the numbers mean. Don't expect it to be perfectly consistent, it's a bit hard to know what certain amounts of strength are capable of doing and what not when they get too high.
Powerscaling is not my forte, for I am not a physicist.
Also, as you might have noticed, Taka isn't exactly cool material. But that's what the system is there for.
Aura Farmers aren't born, they are built.
Or something like that.)