"Hey, Ken, can we stop running for a moment? My feet are sore." Issei called out to me.
It's late March, Me and the boys decided to start working out. It started with using the money Ruruko's parents gave me to buy small 1kilo and 3kilo weights, and soon Oki and Issei joined me.
Starting with Middle-school, fitness exams become a large point for finals score, so we decided to start training early.
"Tired already Issei? How will you become the harem king if you can't even run a lap around the park?" Oki egged him on, running in place in front of him.
"Grrr, I'll show you! I'll become the best harem king ever!" Issei yelled and began to run in overdrive.
We had to carry him home later that day because his legs fell asleep.
We ate dinner with his parents before Oki and I both went our separate ways.
One month left till Middle-School.
...
Three weeks before the new school year began, My family of mom and I decided to take a trip to Kyoto.
"Ken-chan, What do you think of this picture?" my mom asked me as she showed me the pictures she took on her new camera, Smartphones aren't as smart as they were in my past life, so cameras are the main source of picture taking.
That's what happens when you live in the early 2000's
Motohama Kaho is a wonderful woman and an amazing mother. After the divorce, she took custody of me while dad ran away to gamble and drink.
Her thick glasses always highlight her dimples when she smiles, and her puffy sweaters always make her soft and warm. She's a great hugger.
One of the reasons I'm trying so hard to be at the top at school is so I could get a good job, get rich, and then Mom wouldn't need to work so hard anymore.
The alimony allows us to live comfortably, but it won't last forever.
"Hey, Ken-chan, what do you think about buying some Dango?" Mom asked me as we walked into a small market district filled with street vendors.
Personally, I never got my Mom's fascination with sweet food like Dango and Mochi, they don't even taste that good, at least for me.
Maybe that's just my pallet from my old life influencing my new one, But it doesn't matter.
Mom loves Dango, so we'll be eating Dango, simple as that.
After buying four sticks of Dango, two for me and two for her, we sat down on a bench and started eating.
Or my mother started eating and I just snacked lightly.
When we finished she went to throw the sticks into a bin and left me to wait for her on the bench.
As I sat there, a couple of local kids approached me and asked me some questions, the usual stuff of young children seeing other kids they never met before, 'where do you come from?' 'What's your name?' 'where are your parents?'
So I answered them, not really thinking about it, Kuoh is hours away by car and still close to three hours by Shinkansen.
A minute after the kids left mom came back and we went back to the hotel we were staying at.
...
"Oi!" A man called out to me as I found myself Sitting in a meditative position on the floor of an empty dojo, a Tachi and sheath laid in front of me on a velvet pillow.
The man who called out to me had short blue, almost white, hair, and deep green eyes, he wore no shirt, showcasing his muscular physique.
His only article of clothing was a river blue Hakama he wore around his waist.
"What is it, Suetaka?" I asked, sheathing my blade and placing it back on the pillow as I turned my head to look at Suetaka better.
The scar on his side has been healing well, By the time he'll be healed up, the scouts would have already found the lair of the Tsuchigumo, and we'll get our revenge.
"You've just been sitting there, doing nothin', What's going on?" Suetaka asks as he takes a spot to sit next to me on the floor of the empty room, choosing to spread his legs and sit on his posterior like a commoner.
"I've simply been training in my head," I answered his question, Picking up my sheathed Tachi and tying it to the Obi I wore around my waist.
"I never get that with you," Suetaka said, leaning his body back so he was laying on the wooden floor of the room, "Every moment with you is training swordsmanship in the yard or training swordsmanship in your mind, memorizing a spell to focus better and then train even more," He slaps me on the back, his large meaty hand making a large smack echo around the mostly empty estate.
"You need to do something other than train with your sword, And killing monsters doesn't count!" He adds on quickly as I'm about to rebuke what he's saying, "Doing your job doesn't count! You need to go out there, and find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with."
"I already have someone like that," I tell him, catching his full attention in the process.
"It's Lord Yorimitsu of course," And he groans out loud.
"Not like that!" He yells as he tries to weakly lift himself from the floor of the room, giving up in the process and laying back down, "A Woman! A wife, someone to marry and start a family with, Being a retainer can't be everything you do."
Suetaka stands up after saying that, stopping on his way out of the dojo.
"You also really need to get a hobby, I'll be bringing you some sake soon, don't run away." And with that, he turned around and left the dojo.
Leaving me sitting on the floor, thinking about his words.
...
The first thought that came through my mind as I woke up was "What kind of dream was that?" Followed closely by panic as I found myself dangling from the roof of a tall building, held on by a rope tied to my torso.
"Look who finally woke up?" A voice asked, and soon a figure approached the edge of the roof to look down at me.
A tall, thin man, with a weasel-like face and buck teeth. An open leather jacket revealing an emancipated body underneath, and tattoos of clouds and grass on his chest.
But the strangest things about the man were his fingernails, which seemed to look as sharp as knives and dark as polished steel.
"Little hero thinks he can go around Kyo and nobody will stop him, we remember what happened last time you were around," The man said in a mocking tone before spitting at me.
His spit landed on the back of my neck, slowly rolling down its side leaving a disgusting feeling in me as I couldn't do anything to wipe it off on account of being tied up.
"I'm going to kill you for what happened all those years ago," He said as he leaned down to tap the rope holding me to the roof with his fingertips, making me sway in the process. And with a sadistic grin, he started cutting the rope with his fingernails.
I'm going to die.
There's no way around it, This man is going to kill me.
I can't run away, I won't survive the fall.
There's nothing I can do.
"This is going to be so good," The man chuckled to himself as he continued cutting the rope at a sadistically slow speed, likely relishing in the horror on my face.
A Monster.
I really don't want to die again. This new life has been going so well, I have a small group of friends, I have a loving mother, I have a bright future ahead of me.
This new life has everything I would have ever wanted in my old one.
I don't know if I'll get a third chance after this.
"And You know," The man said, pausing in his work of cutting the rope.
"When I'm done here," He leaned his disgusting face closer to me, showing off his fingernails, that have somehow elongated to look like sickles, and he whispered in his revolting voice.
"I'll be taking your mother for myself."
And the world went white.