(Shin POV, Shin's house)
Zero spends the night in one of the guest rooms, and I tell him to set an alarm for 7:00 AM. I wake up at 6:30, to be a good host.
I end up going to the kitchen and making breakfast. Cooking is boring, at least the waiting part anyway. So to pass the time quicker, I start humming a song from my past.
Apparently, I'm so into the song that I didn't notice Zero standing there looking at me strangely.
Shin- "Ah, morning Zero. I was just about finished here, we can go buy your electronics soon." He scarfs down my homemade pancakes, and it somehow brings me joy to watch.
Once he's finished he looks up to me, satisfied with his meal.
Zero- "Hey, before we go again, can we get some ramen? I've been dying without it." I laugh, but agree nonetheless.
Shin- "I'll just buy the instant kind, and then you can have it in your world. I'll also be sure to get some like, electric burners or whatever. Solar power!"
Zero- "Do you have the money to just buy all of this?"
Shin- "Uh, yeah? I'm a little bit rich, my 'job' pays pretty well. The main issue is getting to a store that sells that crap, as you can see... City B5 has basically nothing, it was destroyed like, two weeks ago." I point to a city in the distance.
"Wanna race?"
So, we begin our race. Initially, we just start running. After absorbing all those monsters, my physique has gone past the realm of peak human. It's no surprise that I leave Zero in the dust, but he does something that utterly surprises me.
He starts moving, doing something reminiscent to a flash step. He quickly overtakes my speed, but I can't allow that. I use [Telekinesis] to start launching myself, flying about 50% faster than him. He grunts, but then starts teleporting from shadow to shadow.
I didn't think he could do something like that, so I use [Darkness Manipulation] to make the shadows 'run away' from him. I also boosted my speed using fire to propel myself like Iron Man.
We enter the city at the same time, taking around 66 seconds to get here.
Shin- "Crap! We tied!" I cross my arms in annoyance, but it's fine.
We go on a shopping spree, spending thousands of dollars. Most of it on tech that Zero finds useful, and about $400 on food.
By the time we make it back to my house it's 8:26, so we hurriedly go through the portal.
After a while, we decide that it's time to fight. He stretches, making some weird movements with his hand. I chalk it up to the pleasant feeling forcing his body to do weird things.
He gets into a fighting stance, and I drop my arms to my side. The moment he makes a move I'll bully him with [Telekinesis].
He just stands there waiting for a few seconds, before drawing out a wooden katana. I notice that he's about to make a move, so I pick him up into the air.
Zero- "What the hell? What did you do?" He struggles around a little bit, looking slightly panicked.
Shin- "You think I'll freaking tell? Don't you get mad at those dumb anime characters who explain their abilities, and then complain when they lose because they described their weakness to the enemy?" I point my hand to his direction, and then swing it down. Zero's body follows my hand's movements, slamming onto the ground with a thud.
"Whoops~ Looks like I hit a little too hard, let's try that again." I pick him up into the air again, just to fling him back to the ground.
He throws a wooden knife at my head, but I catch it, scoffing a little.
Zero- "Damn it!" I slam him back onto the ground, but he disappears almost instantly. All of a sudden, I feel a slight itch on my side. I look, and notice that he swung his sword, and it hit my shadow armor.
I turn to grab him, but he's already gone. I look around before spotting him high in a tree. I lift up my hand, my palm facing him. But then I notice my huge freaking smile, and realize that I was going to impale him repeatedly.
Shin- "I can't do that, I'm not trying to kill him." I mumble while shaking my head, and make a sword out of shadows.
"Sorry, got a little carried away." Saying this loud enough for him to hear, I notice a small shiver from him. But then he notices my sword.
Zero- "Are we using weapons now? Isn't that a disadvantage to you?" I giggle unexpectedly, because his statement came from nowhere.
Shin- "I'm pretty strong, even if you're better at using a sword than me. You'll find it tough to keep up." I get into Kirito's one handed sword stance, and he does the same.
Zero- "I see you have good taste, I based my first few years off of the Aincrad style. Let's see how well you do." He flash steps right in front of me, using Horizontal Square. I counter with Deadly Sins, a seven hit move. He is forced to dodge my last three hits.
He charges at me with Octagon, an eight hit move. So in response I use Honor Guard and Vertical Square back to back.
We fight for a while, and I'm impressed that he can keep up with my superhuman stamina. Although he does seem a little out of breath.
His techniques are very hard to deal with, if I was even slightly weaker I would have lost. I barely have any training with weapons, while he's a master.
In order to make him back down I sprout four black shadow tentacles from my back, hoping that he'll get my Tokyo Ghoul reference.
I notice that he's struggling with my attacks as well, so I just stop using my sword and cross my arms. Only my tentacles are fighting, but he's keeping up with all four of them.
Shin- "You admit defeat yet?"
Zero- "HA! No way! I can still beat you, I have nearly limitless stamina!" I bring my hand up and wag my finger like [insert Sega character here].
Shin- "There you go explaining your power, stop that bad habit." As punishment, I make ten more tentacles appear. Let's see how he deals with this.
He can't keep up with the tentacles, but not even his clothes are damaged. I assume that his clothes are special, or my attacks are just too weak. So I ramp up the damage, ripping his shirt to shreds. I continue the assault until I realize that he can't even move anymore.
"Whoops... I did it again... At least I can fix this..." I begin healing him, although it's not really going to help much since it's still a very low rank.
Once he's healed enough to speak, he yells out, shocking me.
Zero- "Which one of you imbeciles decided to not give me a potion!?" What? Who is he talking to?
Someone wearing a shihakusho appears, surprising me. But I quickly understand that it's one of his guards.
Guard- "Sorry sir, we didn't know what your orders were. You told us not to interfere, 'no matter what.'" He just groans in response.
Zero- "Fine, I forgive you... But I would like a potion or six." The guard leaves and comes back within a few seconds, carrying six potions.
Shin- "That was quick! I didn't realize that other people could Flash Step like you, I thought you were the only one." He chuckles, slightly ticking me off.
"So, you going to teach me some techniques? Like a flash step?" He sighs, probably in annoyance.
Zero- "It's not flash step, but something close to it. As it is now, it takes MP to use. Most people can only do it a time or two before passing out from exhaustion."
"Can you even use MP? I know you said I don't have Aura, but I can't tell whether or not you would have MP." I scratch the back of my head.
Shin- "Well, maybe you can just give me some tips on how to use a gun better or something... You did train in guns right?" He nods.
"Okay, then let's take the rest of the day in training that. And maybe a few sword lessons."
Zero- "Alright, prepare yourself. You already know how painful my training is, don't expect me to go easy on you."
So, he spends a couple hours teaching me the basics on how to use a gun. Then he spends another couple teaching me about the sword, but it was more of an advice giving session.
The it was back to guns, he would beat the crap out of me every time I missed. So I got good eventually.
Then it was back to sparring with the sword, and I could feel my prowess in both weapons rising. We spend the whole rest of the day just like that, and it's nighttime before we even realize it.
He then tells me that it's time to increase his thermal resistance, and starts gathering wood. I have no clue what he's doing, but I help him gather anyway.
When he's done, he lights it on fire... And the jumps into the flames.
Shin- "Hey! Are you not afraid of freaking dying?" He simply laughs.
Zero- "These flames are barely affecting me anymore, I don't even need my shihakusho." Wow... So he really has fire resistance... If I wasn't such a cheat myself, I would complain about his hacks.