Anime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Center of Attention in the Gym

When Yuuki Asuna and Asagiri walked into the campus gym together, they were greeted by the rhythmic hum of treadmills and the clanking of iron. A handful of students and a few young-looking faculty members were already deep into their workout routines. The moment the heavy glass doors swung shut behind them, several curious gazes drifted their way. Unlike the regulars clad in breathable athletic wear, Asagiri and Asuna were still dressed in their pristine Shuchiin Academy uniforms.

It was an unavoidable wardrobe clash. Today was merely the first day of the semester, and the administration had yet to distribute the custom-sized sportswear the students had ordered. Because of this logistical delay, first-year students were entirely absent from the facility. After all, what normal high school freshman would skip the club recruitment fairs to come lift weights on their very first afternoon?

Seeing that the gym patrons merely offered them a passing glance before returning to their exercises, Asagiri frowned. A distinct look of displeasure settled over his features.

“Hmm. No one is glaring at me with unbridled hostility.” He sighed quietly, sounding genuinely disappointed. “I suppose it makes sense. It is only the first day, and barely a single morning has passed. My reputation might be spreading through the high school division, but it has not reached the point of absolute infamy yet. It seems I need to work harder.”

Asuna had slowly grown accustomed to his habit of casually dropping utterly unhinged statements, but she still found it impossible to bite her tongue.

“No… I think this is genuinely the first time I have ever met someone who actively wants to be ostracized and bullied.”

“Ostracized? Do not be ridiculous.” Asagiri shook his head as if she had just told a terrible joke. “I never had any intention of interacting with them in the first place. I am not the type of person who needs to desperately cling to a clique to forge a sense of self-worth out of superficial harmony. Frankly, the vast majority of the student body at Shuchiin Academy is entirely unworthy of my time. As for bullying… that is even more nonsensical.”

A faint, chilling smile touched his lips.

“These pampered elites think they can bully me? I made a deal with Ashikaga-sensei. I intend to fulfill my promise to her and completely dismantle the disgusting, corrupt hierarchy rotting this academy from the inside out. I simply do not have the free time to root out every stubborn idiot one by one. Therefore, the most efficient method is to let them come to me. Once they do, I will subject them to true bullying. I will let them personally taste the suffocating despair of being utterly humiliated and entirely powerless.”

He paused, his tone shifting into something mockingly gentle.

“Consider it an educational experience. I am simply teaching them the golden rule of treating others how they wish to be treated. They offer me hostility, and I repay them with absolute kindness. Truly, I am far too gentle for my own good.”

Hearing his twisted logic, Asuna found herself entirely at a loss for words. A deep sense of worry settled heavily in her chest.

She was not worried about Asagiri. She was worried for the students of Shuchiin Academy. She felt a deep wave of pity for the first-years who were doomed to share the next three years with this walking demon king.

She could not forget what she had witnessed. This was the same Utsunomiya Asagiri who casually chatted with a three-meter-tall, blood-soaked monstrosity. This was the boy who had brutally hospitalized five violent delinquents without breaking a sweat, and who had ruthlessly taken a life the very first time he stepped foot inside a dungeon.

When she really thought about it, whatever petty bullying tactics these sheltered rich kids could cook up would look like absolute childs play to a monster like him. She could only pray for the soul of whoever was unlucky enough to provoke him next.

A few minutes later, Asuna followed him over to the free-weight section. She stood to the side, watching in silence as he began loading heavy iron plates onto the ends of an Olympic barbell resting on the squat rack.

Just as he finished securing the collars and stepped under the bar, a broad-shouldered middle-aged man in athletic wear noticed them. Looking every bit the quintessential physical education teacher, the man frowned deeply and hurried over to intervene.

“Hey there, student. That is way too much weight for you, and you are not even wearing a lifting belt. This has to be your first time in a gym, right? You need to start with the empty bar to warm up your joints, then add weight gradually. Squatting heavy right out of the gate is incredibly dangerous. If you really want to try it, let me spot you so you do not snap your spine.”

Faced with the teacher’s genuine concern, Asagiri merely smiled and shook his head. Ignoring the warning entirely, he stepped squarely under the iron. He positioned the heavily loaded barbell across his shoulders with flawless, textbook form. Then, under the teacher’s horrified gaze, he sank into a deep, perfect squat and rose back up without a single tremor in his legs.

“For me, this is just a warm-up weight,” Asagiri said calmly.

The physical education teacher stood frozen, his face completely blank.

“Ninety kilograms… is just a warm-up?”

For a man who had graduated from a sports university, a ninety-kilogram squat was not an inherently mind-blowing number. In professional powerlifting circles, it was a fairly standard working set. The issue was that he had never in his life seen a high school teenager unrack ninety kilograms with zero protective gear, zero warm-up, and execute a flawless repetition without breaking a single drop of sweat.

Before the teacher could process the shock, Asagiri made another move that left him utterly dumbfounded.

“Still too light.”

Stepping away from the rack, Asagiri casually picked up two massive twenty-five-kilogram plates from the floor and slid them onto the sleeves of the barbell. Added to the existing ninety, the total weight now sat at a staggering one hundred and forty kilograms.

By this point, the physical education teacher was no longer the only one watching. The rhythmic hum of the treadmills had faded into the background as nearly everyone in the gym stopped what they were doing. They stared in stunned silence as the high schooler stepped back under the bar.

With terrifying ease, Asagiri squatted the one hundred and forty kilograms. As he drove his hips upward and locked out his legs, he even bounced slightly on his toes, the heavy iron plates clanking sharply against the bar.

“Holy crap…”

“Is that guy even human?”

“Look at the bar, it is literally bending. How is he that strong?”

“Where did this monster come from? I have never seen him on campus before.”

Whispers of disbelief rippled through the facility.

The physical education teacher swallowed hard. While he had certainly seen athletes squat one hundred and forty kilograms before, anyone who could move that much iron with such casual explosive power would instantly become the star meathead of any commercial gym. The most baffling part was Asagiri’s physique. He did not possess the bulky, bloated frame of a dedicated powerlifter. He was lean and slender. Possessing that kind of raw, explosive power in such a compact frame was nothing short of a freakish natural gift.

What the stunned teacher did not know was that this was nowhere near Asagiri’s actual limit.

Even back in middle school, he had been capable of grinding out a single repetition at one hundred and forty kilograms. Right now, he was merely testing the physical enhancements granted by the Demi-Fiend passive effect. Judging by the sheer lack of resistance he felt in his muscles, he knew his maximum output could easily shatter the two-hundred-kilogram mark.

However, casually squatting over two hundred kilograms in a high school gym would cross the line from impressive into the world of the supernatural.

Watching Asagiri rack the bending barbell with a relaxed exhale, the physical education teacher suddenly connected the dots. He stared at the boy’s pristine uniform and lean frame, a look of dawning realization washing over his face.

“Could it be… you are the legendary new transfer student, Utsunomiya Asagiri?”