Hello!?" A voice yells to seemingly no one as the distinct sound of running can be heard. The footfalls were rapid as a silhouette could be spotted.
"Anyone around!?" The silhouette yells in desperation as the silhouette is revealed to be a teenage boy. Tan skin, long hair. His face was covered in dirt and grime, and his eyes filled with panic.
The boy stops to catch his breath, his breathing ragged as each breath comes out in a wheeze. His legs tremble as a nearby bush shakes.
Standing on alert, the boy looks around wearily. His eyes scrunched in concentration. Despite his clear exhaustion, he remains determined.
The bush begins to rustle violently as a large creature steps out. Standing at 9 feet tall with hollow eyes and a pale white face. The grotesque creature looks down at the boy in hunger.
"Hah, Hah, Hah, looks like this is it." The boy gets into a stance. His fist is positioned in a way that shows that he is well-trained.
His posture remains defensive as the creature stares curiously. In its millennium of existence, not a single human has ever attempted to defend themselves after it wore them down.
The most they would do is desperately scream and throw things at themselves. Never get into a combative stance.
The creature's bloody maw twitches into a smile. The first and only human that has earned its respect out of thousands. A feat the beast will remember after it inevitably triumphs. Not all humans are pathetic, after all.
After its thoughts finish, it closes the distance in a beat. Its arms lash out in claws, aiming to skewer the boy in two.
In a bout of agility, the boy manages to redirect both attempts to skewer him. Receiving only grazes on his tanned skin as he lashes out in a kick. Connecting with the creature but doing nothing.
"Shit," the boy curses mentally as his kick remains ineffective. His shin aches as the creature capitalizes on its prey's injury.
Gasping as his guts get rearranged by a claw, the boy grunts in pain. Using all the power possible, he punches the creature away before falling onto his back.
"*wheeze* So this is it, huh..." The boy's face gains a smile as he stares into the sky. The sunset is in the distance as the creature slowly stands over him.
Normally, it would eat its prey alive to relish in their suffering. But this one is different. Not only did it fight back, but it also managed to damage its hide. Something even high-caliber bullets seemed incapable of.
Staring at its prey in wonder, the creature claws the boy's heart in a swift motion. Giving him a clean and painless death. The only prey it's encountered that didn't deserve to suffer in his last moments.
While the creature admires the boy's body. Said boy's soul gets catapulted. His soul begins to travel through space and time as a god desperately pulls upon the boy's being.
God stares anxiously as it stares at the soul begging to wither. Mortal souls withstanding such trauma is fatal, yet this one persists.
That's why the god has chosen this boy to fix his world. Doomed to fall to an outer force that not even the favored daughter of heaven (Mc) can stop is bad.
Initially, the god would have thrown the boy into the most significant person in his world. But despite his panic, he reads the soul's preferences. Acknowledging that the soul would prefer a male's body, he desperately searches for the perfect host.
The god's eyes widen as they peer into the classroom of a large building. Inside lies the favored daughter. Along with many others. In the back of the classroom lies a boy sleeping.
This boy is nothing special. Both parents are dead, and he himself has a perverted personality and a lack of determination. This boy's soul is so weak that the fading soul would take over the body without resistance.
Literally tossing the nearly faded soul into the body of the boy, the god grins. Improving the new body's gift as it throws the soul into it.
Initially, the copied gift, the original inhabitant of the body, held no special properties. The boy had five minutes of usage a day with the copied gift.
Along with that, the original could only use the weakened copied gift once every week. Capable of only copying three abilities a day as well.
Now. After improving upon the gift. The new soul inhabitant can now copy gifts unrestricted. The boys can now use copied gifts for five minutes each. And the copied gifts now remain slightly weakened. Weaker than the original user's gift but not weak enough for it to be too noticeable.
Add along that the copied gifts now remain inside the boy's body. God can safely say that his improvements will help the boy greatly.
Weaving a tiny amount of godly power, the God sends down his last gift. A glowing purple ring. When in combat, the ring will transform into an unbreakable sword.
This sword is soul bonded with the boy's soul. If thrown a distance away, it will fly right back to its master. Not even dimensions can separate the boy and this sword.
Grinning, the god claps his hands, and excitement reverberates from its being as it watches the sleeping boy stir.
"Let's hope that adding you to the equation will save my world from its twisted fate."
****
The last thing I expected to do was open my eyes again. Groaning in annoyance, I sit up. The first thing I notice is that my surroundings are completely foreign.
I appear to be in the back of a classroom. People sit next to me and in front of me. About 20 kids appear to be in the class, each having varying different hair colors ranging from black to pink.
"What the hell?" I mutter as I sit up. I stretch in my seat as I stare in confusion. Black locks of hair fall in front of my eyes as I frown.
"Did you say something, Mister Hernandez?" A cold voice cuts through the classroom like a hot knife through butter as I gulp. Looking forward, I spot a tall woman with aqua-blue hair and purple eyes. The very air around her seems to fold as she stares at me.
Everyone in class looks in my direction as I frown. "No ma'am." I bow my head a bit out of respect. Shocking my classmates as they begin to mutter.
'Shit, where the hell am I!' I mentally panic as foreign memories along with familiar memories flood my brain.
These memories are familiar. My last moments before I died and woke up here. After being haunted by a creature straight out of a creepypasta for a few hours, I finally died.
Now I'm Akira Hernandez. A failure of a student. Perverted and scorned by his classmates due to his pervertedness, Akira experiences bullying. But that seems to not waver the boy's antics one bit as he still peeps on people.
Sighing in frustration at getting the body of a grade-A weirdo, I immediately recognize where I am based on my vague memories from the original Akira.
I'm in a novel I dropped after the first 20 chapters. The character whose body I'm in was expelled after the first semester when he was caught attempting to sexually assault an injured classmate.
'This guy has issues.' I frown as I feel a foreign energy coursing through my veins. This energy is undoubtedly mana. The feeling of mana in my body is akin to a constant warmth flowing through every limb.
It's like drinking hot chocolate on a cold day. The feeling of warmth spreading through your being and cooling you off.
Pulling a bit on the minuscule amounts of mana Akira once had I sigh. His reserves are low. I have an instinctual feeling that even enhancing my strength would exhaust me after a minute or 2.
Fortunately for me, today is the second day of school so Akira's reputation isn't entirely tarnished yet. Unfortunately for me, Akira has already been labeled a weirdo by the masses on the 1st day.
If memories serve correctly this buffoon confessed his love for the protagonist during her big speech as the #1 ranked first year. Not only embarrassing himself as she rejected him without hesitation but also getting mocked by the vast majority of the school.
This guy managed to make himself a social outcast on the first day. Growling in annoyance I focus on what the teacher is explaining.
But before I can get immersed in the topic I look down toward my hand in confusion. A ring lies on my ring finger. The ring has a multitude of symbols along it and seemingly glows purple.
From my memories, Akira never owned a ring. That leads to the question of how I ended up with it. Things to be answered later