The darkness of the sewars should've been a struggle for Akira to navigate through, but the strange mask on his face seemingly enhanced his vision. All though he was still disgusted by the smell.
"This place reeks, where's the damn exit."
Akira checked his watch for the time, and saw that he was late heading to the Café. Understandably angry, he slammed his fist against the wall, but was a little freaked out at the fist sized crater he created. Syn then explained,
"Me being in your body has altered it permanently, and it will only continue to evolve the longer im with you. If I was in control, I could've gone all out to begin with, but you'll eventually be able to use all it with time. Nevertheless it's still my power. I can take it back whenever I like."
Akira noted that. Because of Syn, Akira now had power. The person who killed his mother 10 years ago was still out there somewhere, killing even more people. The police couldn't find him and neither could the Returners, but with this power he could now take revenge.
"Syn, thank you. I completely forgot... Or rather I tried to forget the fear I felt that day. Because of that bastard, because people like him exist, humans around the world are at their mercy, and they don't even know it."
"What will you do about that?"
Akira recalled the meeting he had with that girl the other day, and that inevitably, he would need to eat someone again soon. If he wanted to keep his routine, if he wanted keep his life, then the only thing he could do was fight.
"Make a promise with me."
The shadow with a singular eye ball quickly sprang out of Akira's body before hovering in front of him.
"Humans, borrowers, I'll eat them all. But only criminals, understand? If you disagree, then you can leave my body right now."
His eyes showed only the conclusion he had reached. Although he couldn't binge eat as much as he liked, this was good enough for Syn. He sighed as he zipped back into Akira's body.
"Whatever, just don't go back on your promise."
Eventually Akira reached one of the many exits of the sewars, where he ended up in a garbage disposal site. The stench had obviously gotten much worse. He had also gotten several messages from Lebanon.
Noticing it was dark, Akira quickly ran back to the Café.
**
Lebanon had long since left, leaving Shinomiya alone to clean up and then close the store. As she did, Soyuz entered. She eagerly raised her hand as she greeted Shinomiya.
"The squad leader has returned! Is everyone else here?"
"Yeah."
She then starred into her eyes with earnest. Clearly she was omitting details.
"Is Akira here?"
Shinomiya didn't answer and instead shifted her gaze away from her quickly. Naturally Soyuz got mad. Akira then suddenly bursted into the Café, shocking Shinomiya was that he had come back, but Soyuz was glad to see him.
"Whatever you guys are doing, I'm in. I was too much of a coward before, but things have changed."
The smell from the sewars he radiated, spread quickly across the room causing Soyuz to suffocate from the stench.
"Please take a shower first!"
Thankfully, Shinomiya lent Akira the Shower at the back of the store. He was even offered a spare change of clothes for him to wear once he finished, although they were a little plain.
The shower room was small, but it would have to make do for now. Since he was partially by himself, it was also a nice time to check on that voice he kept hearing earlier.
Just like Syn taught him, he focused on the anger and hatred which he felt for the person who killed his mother, the Oni mask he would now call him. The second he did, something strange happened.
Numerous symbols and words that belonged to no language he could recognised appeared, and yet, he understood what they said.
[Name: Akira Hoshimiya]
[Status: Satiated]
[Body Rank: Mature]
[Soul Rank: N/A]
[Essence Accumulation: 6/50]
Talents: [Curing], [Black Beast Manifestation], [Unseen visage], [???]
"Syn? What is this?"
The strange devil could also see the words, but he was just as confused. Experimenting a little, Akira tried to touch the characters, but his finger just flowed through them.
'Huh.. this is just like a game? Why does something like this come with his powers?? Never mind that! You'd think there would be a tutorial for this sort of thing!?'
Anyhow, after experimenting for a little bit, Akira eventually understood what this all meant.
His Status was a measure of how full he was right now, which would go down overtime as it would be indicated by its rank. Currently, it was at [Satiated] which was the highest it could be, but later it could move down to [Neutral] which meant he wasn't hungry yet, but eating should be considered. On the bad side, there was [Hungry], which meant it was time to eat, and finally [Starved] which meant that if he didn't eat urgently, he would die. At the last two stages, Syn could take over his body.
Surprisingly, the hungrier he was, the stronger he would get. So being in the [Neutral] or [Hungry] state was suitable in combat.
Next, was his body rank which was how strong his physical body actually was. It's first rank was [Immature] which was its state right after Syn entered his body, but after a day, it perfected into the [Mature] state. If what Syn said was true then his body would increase in rank as time went on, although the time it would take would increase exponentially depending on how strong he was already. By focusing on those words, he could see a list of all the potential ranks from low to high.
Immature, Mature, Great, Grand, Goliath, Transcended, Divine.
The next thing in the 'system' was his Soul Rank which he couldn't figure out right now. It seemed to be inactive so even if he knew what it was, it was effectively useless. He just skipped to the next items which was [Essence Accumulation].
"Hey, Syn? You called Aether, Essence didn't you?"
"Yeah. In my world, the Essence in the atmosphere there is much more dense than this one. It's basically everywhere you went, but I can't make use of it."
Every human had Aether, although very small amounts compared to a borrower. It seems that whatever little amounts of Aether was in Akira's body, it must've been counted towards this [Essence Accumulation] number. What happens when it reaches 50/50? He didn't know, but it must be something good.
'Will I be able to use Aether some day?? How will I even get more essence anyway??'
Up next was [Talents]. From what Akira could infer, these were his skills, the abilities he would use in battle along with his Body. One of the [Talents] he already had unlocked was [Curing]. By focusing on those words, more details about that talent appeared.
[Talent: Curing]
[Talent Rank: A]
[Talent Description: As the host, you inherit the Lords vitality.]
'The lord?? Syn!?? Just call him by his name!'
From what he could tell, talents came in ranks of their own, going from the typical F — S indicating how powerful it was. Akira was very excited as this skill was Rank A, which meant it was very powerful, but was disappointed to find that is was a passive skill. This appeared to grant Akira some form of regeneration. It would explain why the injury to his forehead had quickly healed the other day.
And with that, Akira checked on the Next Talent in his list.
[Talent: Black Beast Manifestation]
[Talent Rank: S]
[Parts Unlocked: Right Talon]
[Talent Description: In a world of purity, he was the only one stained with sin.]
'Interesting description? I Wonder what it means.'
Akira thought he was lucky as his next Talent was the highest Rank, S, but was disappointed once again when he realised its true nature.
Syn's true body existed inside of himself, and this Talent is what allowed him to make use of them. Right now he only had the right Talon, but with time he would gain access to more body parts. The more he accessed, the wider his arsenal would grow, and the stronger he could become.
[Talent: Unseen Visage]
[Talent Rank: C]
[Talent Description: A mask to hide your cowardice.]
'Is it insulting me??'
Seeing that the rank was low, Akira was a little disappointed, but upon learning what it did, he was quite glad. This Talent was the mask Syn had created in his battle against Jericho. Now, he could make it whenever he wanted to, and use it to hide his face.
Now that he had gone through all the basic stuff, the last Talent left was one Akira had the most hope, and also confusion for.
[Talent: ???]
[Talent Rank: ???]
[Talent Description: The two shall become one.]
'These descriptions are useless!'
Akira tried to use the Talent right there and then, however nothing happened. At least nothing to his knowledge.
"You know anything about this buddy?"
"Don't call me buddy, and no, I don't know what this does."