It was an ordinary day, and the citizens were heading to their jobs.
A man stopped short and sighed. His phone buzzed, telling him to get there as soon as possible. He quickened his pace, but he suddenly collided with someone.
Kiro Yukimiya stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Sorry, sorry," the man said hurriedly.
Without waiting for a reply, he sped off again and vanished around the corner. Yukimiya slowly got to his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes.
He went on his way, glancing around. There was nothing of interest, just the usual people chatting and rushing to work.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. When he turned, he saw a couple in a compromising moment and went pale at the sight.
Suddenly a hooded man approached the couple and pointed a gun at them, followed by another man holding a pistol.
The first man seized the girl by the shoulder and forced her to her knees. The boy was knocked out with a precise punch to the jaw, and the first man smiled. He gently touched the girl's face as she stared at them in panic.
Without a second thought, Kiro Yukimiya threw himself at the second man. He took a blow to the shoulder, but it didn't stop him, and his fist landed square on the man's face. He shoved the man away, snatched his gun, and shot him in the foot.
"AAAAAH!" the man screamed, his foot bleeding.
The first man didn't hesitate and shot Kiro in the abdomen, and for a moment the sudden pain clouded his vision. He returned fire before the man could move again.
Blood welled from his skin, but he held the pain in, gritting his teeth before he passed out, the girl's face the last thing he saw.
Minutes later, an ambulance arrived. The paramedics lifted him at once, laid him on a stretcher, and slammed the doors shut.
Hours passed, and Yukimiya slowly opened his eyes. He realized he was in a hospital ward and propped his elbows on the edge of the bed.
He studied the room. A nurse was hooking up IV drips for the other patients. With a strength no one should have after a deep wound, Kiro got up and started walking with measured steps. His body was forced to obey. The pain lingered, but it hardly mattered.
He left the hospital, walked a little, and hailed a taxi. When he got home, he started training with visible effort.
His hands trembled, but they started moving at once, pumping out push-ups.
His chest rose and fell with every rep, and his legs ached, but adrenaline took over. His veins began to stand out, and then he struck the back of his own head hard, forcing his brain to send signals to his limbs more often.
He breathed deeply and then pushed the intensity higher, his body beginning to heat up. Every bone felt uncomfortable and wanted him to stop, but the adrenaline kept flowing.
His body moved at 5 kilometers per hour, picking up speed like a car.
10 kilometers per hour... 18 kilometers per hour.
The adrenaline spiked all at once. His bones felt as if they were about to snap, but he never stopped, pushing on even though everything hurt.
His spine burned. He suddenly switched exercises, grabbing a water jug and the television at the same time and lifting them like weights. He sped up, his shoulders tensed, sweat streaming down his face, his body overloading. He repeated the drill for ten minutes.
Steam rose all around him, his legs shook, and his limbs turned a deeper red. His shirt was a sea of sweat. Now moving at 26 kilometers per hour, he opened the door and ran outside.
He overtook a cyclist, their eyes meeting for a moment, but he accelerated to 28.
Days passed. Cold drops of blood lay on the floor as Yukimiya did abductor exercises, his legs showing clear muscle mass, firmer now.
His eyes flared with an orange glint. He picked up dumbbells and trained both muscles at once.
He stopped for a moment.
*I'm going to beat my pull-up record,* he thought.
He started with 1,000 sit-ups, then 1,000 squats, then 1,000 push-ups, and the numbers climbed higher and higher.
The month flashed by. He now did 10,000,000 sit-ups with ease, and the squats and push-ups went the same way.
One night, he clenched his fist. His mind finally broke, and his emotions retreated deep inside. He took a deep breath and looked at his hands, but he felt nothing. When he looked in the mirror, he saw a serious, cold expression.
He paused for a moment, then turned and set off toward a forest. When he arrived, he punched a tree, and it vanished at once, releasing a great wave of air that carved a hole through a mountain.
Kiro's face no longer smiled or showed any emotion, only an untouchable coldness. And without knowing it, he was about to draw the gaze of villains from layers 2, 3, and even 4, whom he would have to face alone.
He felt a cold draft behind him. A man in a black hood smiled and then vanished in an instant.
"I'll kill him when I find him," Kiro said, staring at the spot where the figure had been.
He simply set a firm stride and a serious gaze. Now everything depended on him.
From somewhere else, the unknown voice watched.
"Kiro Yukimiya, gaining strength with an ordinary human body, with nothing external or internal to help him... Interesting," he said.
Then he turned to another screen. On it was the protagonist Kiro saving his friend Sukori from a truck, then bleeding while she rushed to him in absolute distress.
He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, brought a finger to a button, and activated Boss 1, who was in the hospital where Kiro would be taken.
With a snap, he shut off the scene...
...
You're the original, Yukimiya