Beyond Critical - Chapter 2.1 (Patreon)

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly. Kaito found himself having a rather relaxing weekend with no disruptions.

And he was right in the end, that all his tension at the sudden interest Koneko had in him because of his power increase, was absolutely useless in the end and a waste of time.

It did not of course stop him, from hitting up the gym every single day over the weekend.

While that would usually be detrimental to training ones physical body, he was a rather unusual case.

Twice Critical's ability was to double all the physical abilities of ones body and their magic power. While most would only see the benefit of such a thing in physical strength or in a fight and such, Kaito had been using his for years and it was how he got to where he was now.

And he had learned to look beyond just that.

Doubling the physical abilities of his body, meant that his body healed at twice the rate. But not only that, it still wasn't quite that simple. When he said Twice Critical doubled all physical abilities.

He meant in.

That included not only his metabolism, but sheer more or less, efficiency of his body when it came to such things as digesting and drawing nutrients and energy from food.

Which bolstered again, his recovery rate.

And he could now double that once more, thanks to his second Twice Critical. It more or less, compounded.

So, when he pushed himself in the late afternoon to evening at the gym before returning home, when using his double boosts when eating and then holding for as long as he could before sleeping, it meant that things like delayed onset muscle soreness, weren't a problem for him and he could push himself again at the gym again the next afternoon till evening.

It wasn't exactly regeneration or even some healing factor and just speeding up his natural recovery process by a factor of what was by all accounts, more than four times the normal when taken all together.

But it got the job done.

As it was, when Kaito left his apartment behind on Monday morning and began making his way to school.

He was feeling rather good about himself and had a skip in his step. Pushing himself to the limit over the weekend, had truly allowed him to clear his head and he honestly couldn't believe how…angsty he was about the devils and crap on Friday.

Completely unmanly.

He'd been more worrying and stressing over that, than revelling in the fact that, he was beyond just doubling his abilities now.

He could quadruple them!

He could literally bench over a thousand pounds when using both and run over a hundred miles per hour.

In fact, considering he could comfortably bench four hundred and fifty pounds without his gears, he could probably bench press a full on ton at this point when using both and could keep up with a speeding car on foot.

He was, literally superhuman with them.

When taken into perspective, he was just plain awesome and had no reason to fret over possibly being recruited by devils or be jealous over a stupid useless pervert.

'If I use both boosts in the next upcoming match and completely dominate the match, my name will probably be on the name of every scouts tongue.' Kaito mused as he made his way towards school.

One interesting thing about his Twice Critical(s), was that, while he had to summon them to boost his abilities, he could dismiss them and keep the boost going still.

It was how he got his scholarship in the first place, by doubling his abilities and vastly overshadowing others during football matches and at club meetings growing up.

Was it fair? No.

Did he care? No.

He was just using what he was born with after all.

'I just need to get my foot in the door with even a crappy team.' he mused. Once he got even the tiniest edge onto the professional stage, his abilities would speak for themselves.

Then, all he needed to do, was repeat that until European teams caught wind of his skills and they'd pay through the nose for him, and he'd become a rich famous football player known the world over.

Assuming nobody got in his way that is. Or the world didn't get blown to shit by supernatural assholes throwing hissy fits.

…Which was a distinct possibility. There was a ton of shit about this world he didn't know. His other self had only watched it as an anime, and then learned some more through wiki diving on the internet for anything that interested him.

A lot of it flew over his head without context, but he knew there was going to be some world ending apocalypses…apocalypsi? Apocalypi? Whatever, he knew there was gonna be more than one apocalypse coming up, which that useless pervert as the 'hero' and main character was going to stop and have everyone bend over backwards for him for some reason.

'Imagine living in a world where a scrawny perverted wannabe rapist loser like Issei Hyoudou is the hero.' Kaito scoffed at the thought.

That was his reality.

He still wasn't sure what to make of that to be honest. Honestly, if he ruminated on it for any length of time, he felt like it would turn into a pity party.

Kaito would pity anyone that had to rely on Issei Hyoudou. It just sucked he might end up having to be one of them.

"Please let me go." a female voice pleaded.

Oh look, a distraction.

Thank fuck.

Looking over to where he heard the voice, Kaito was surprised to notice that he recognised the pleading girl.

It was an attractive, voluptuous brunette with a pair of thin twin tails held up in two ribbons, dressed in the Kuoh Academy female uniform. Her name was Murayame? If he remembered right, she was one of the two captains of the kendo team and a year above him.

She, and her co-captain, were rather popular because of how cute they were, and the fact that…they were often a main target of Hyoudou and his perverted loser buddies peeping shenanigans.

'Why the fuck were they idiots never expelled again?' Kaito huffed internally. They got complained about all the damn time but never got any real punishment out of it beyond detentions.

Either way, Murayame was currently stuck up against the wall of a building, leading into an alley between two actually. And looming over her, an arm leaning against the wall and boxing her in, was a rather tall and fit guy dressed in casual ripped jeans and a simple tank top showing off decently muscular arms.

Oh, and he was bald and currently leering at the girl. Because, why not. Apparently just thinking about Hyoudou brought his ilk around.

"Come on, I'm sure I could show you a good time girl," the guy grinned at the brunette girl, "Way better than wasting your time with school."

"…No, I really don't want to." Murayame denied him, causing his grin to scrunch up into an annoyed frown.

Kaito sighed and rolled his eyes.

Whatever.

Running a hand through his hair in annoyance, Kaito decided to nip this guys poor attempt at a kabedon in the bud and made his way over, "Hey buddy, how about shooting your shot somewhere else?" he interrupted them, causing both of their heads to snap around to him at the sound of his voice, "She's not interested, so save yourself some time and effort, eh?"

"Evander-kun?" Murayame gave a surprised gasp.

She knew his name? He'd never even spoke to this girl before. Though, he supposed he was decently popular at Kuoh in some ways. Being a first year and captain of the football club already kinda came with that kind of clout.

The guy gave him a confused look, before his frown twisted into a sneer, "Beat it kid," he spat, "I'll do what I want and this girl caught my eye, if you don't leave us to it, I'm gonna break your face in."

Murayame gave him a pleading look and Kaito huffed, "Try it, mate." he challenged the guy, the infliction of his other self coming through.

Kaito, hadn't been in very many fights growing up, a few spats, but nothing even resembling a proper street brawl or punch up.

His other self, not so much. He was always getting into fights. And even trained in Muay Thai Kickboxing for a few years.

Between that, his physical build and pair of Twice Critical, Kaito wasn't feeling very threatened.

"…You really don't know how you're messing with, huh kid?" the bald man bared his teeth at Kaito and stood up from where he was leaning over the girl and turning to face Kaito fully.

As he did, Kaito noticed something.

An earring dangling from the ear he hadn't been able to see. An odd shape for an earring, it was pure white and looked like a…magatama?

The guy exploded into motion, juking into an attack and leading with a rapid curved hook out of nowhere aimed at Kaito's kidney.

Kaito's eyes widened.

Fast!

He barely managed to get his palm in the way in time to block the punch, and the force behind it left a meaty echoing clap reverberating through the alleyway.

'Fuck!' Kaito hissed inwardly, in pain. His palm stung like fuck from blocking it.

"Oh, not bad for a normie," the guy noted, a grin that was all teeth forming, "You actually blocked my punch, let's see you try again."

He exploded into a kick next, his leg coming up limberly high into the air and rapidly aiming for Kaito's neck.

'What the fuck!?' Kaito's eyes almost bugged out of his sockets at how easily he did it. He instinctually brought his arm up to guard from the blow and catch it on his forearm.

But the sheer strength behind the blow rocketed him off his feet still and slammed him bodily into the wall.

Kaito saw stars at the same time Murayame screamed, "Kaito-kun?!"

"Guess it was just luck that you blocked me," his attacker scoffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and standing in front of Kaito, lifting his foot up as if to stomp on his face, "Well, not like a normie like you could ever measure up to a toshi like me kid. We're worlds apart."

He slammed his foot down.

Just before the foot made contact and smashed Kaito's face in, he lifted a hand up and caught it by the heel, stopping it in its tracks.

Kaito, blood dripping from his nose glared up his bald attacker, "You're not stronger than me." he said simply.

He may have been faster and caught him by surprise by turning out to be some kung fu master out of nowhere. And he was very strong for sure.

But he wasn't as strong as him.

"Some big talk for some brat on his ass," the bald man scoffed, "I'm a toshi kid and you're a nobody. Forget just being just a toshi, do you know who I am? I'm Cao Huan, I'm a king fool!" green light began to envelope the mans foot and the pressure and strength it was exerting on Kaito's blocking hand increased.

That was a Chinese name.

…Toshi. A Magatami earring.

That, was familiar to him now that he thought about it.

From the memories he gained of his other self.

It clicked.

It was wrong, it didn't make sense, but he suddenly knew what he was dealing with now.

Kaito pushed up with his arm before the man could increase his strength anymore, throwing him off balance, before twisting around on the ground and snapping a kick out at his other leg, smashing his heel out beneath him.

Kaito stood at the same time 'Cao Huan' hit the ground, "Never heard of you loser." the teen wielder of Twice Critical replied flatly.