~7 years later~
Years passed since his rebirth, the reborn hikikomori was reading a book in his room in peace like he wanted. He had finished so many in his new life trying to under the new world he was in so he wouldn't mess up his comfortable lifestyle. In the time that had passed since he was reborn, he was now going by the name Kousuke Hayashi, the name Akane mentioned she picked out to honor her father.
Kousuke was flattered by it, he felt his old name was too grand for him, even more that he never lived up to its meaning. Kousuke happily discarded his original name after receiving this one, he wanted his old identity to stay dead from the shame he felt by it.
The world he lived in was his dream, an Isekai world he longed for handed to him on a silver platter. In this new world, he learned many things to help him understand how it operated so he could play the rules to his favor, among them the first things he learned were as such.
1. The world was populated with 90% women, men were very limited now, on the verge of extinction practically. The Ghast virus he heard about from his birth was a plague that happened decades before his birth. It was a virus specifically designed to kill men to erase humans' abilities to reproduce. Even frozen samples at banks were contaminated by it making any that survived as valuable as gold. Men were incredibly rarely born now, and the process to help give birth to them was even more difficult with all the procedures and science to create birth injections for females to be impregnated with. The Ghasts roaming on the earth were all once the men who were infected, they became too difficult to handle, proving more troublesome when they began to evolve into a variety of new dangerous forms. Worse, anyone bitten by a Ghast became one too, making crowd control with them impossible now.
2. Humans who were born lucky enough were gifted one of two classes. Either they were born Espers, humans who possessed powerful abilities due to advanced minds unlocking their potential physically and mentally using psychic power, progressing further due to extensive knowledge of science and logic. Or Casters, the ones who used magic and a connection to cosmic forces yet to be fully understood, gained the powers to create anything from nothingness or control over the elements. Unlike the Casters, Espers could not use magic without training or being born into it, as such they were granted special skills, like a skill set in a video game they gained unique power-ups or varieties of attacks to compensate for their inability to cast magic.
Prime Calibers, the class he was born into, were those who were considered to be the elite of the classes. Those who mastered both classes gained absolute power and even rarer skills, however, the training to do so was extremely difficult with many dying in the process or going mad from the overflow of not finding the balance needed to use magic and psychic power.
Since Kousuke was born with that class he had to train immediately when he reached age five, the age at which the powers would manifest. He learned the basics thanks to Akane and Mana, which helped him with getting the idea down on how to do the minimum needed to pass his classes and not hurt himself.
Even better that to his amazement, status screens like in his games were real in this world. It displayed the awakened people's names, current level, stats, skill list, and even warnings or info when needed. His current level was three, perfect enough to stay on the radar without showing off too much, since kids his age stayed at Level 1 up till they were twelve at most.
Kousuke loved his new body the most, he was adorable for his age and athletic despite not wanting to do sports of his own will, and since he was an excellent student before he died he was already smarter than most kids his age, something he was extremely proud of and a little arrogant about.
He still tried to be a shut-in. He struggled with the idea of leaving his room unless it was for school where he did feel safe. The bad memories of being bullied or facing disappointment again held him back from wanting to try more. Akane and Mana were understanding though. They didn't try too hard to force him to do anything he didn't want to yet, they wanted him to ease into it slowly till he was ready to make the move himself.
Kousuke was enjoying his paradise here, he felt real enjoyment being there. The thought of him going back to his life would make him want to vomit in disgust at the notion. He finished the book on basic combative techniques he picked up, he wanted to see if there was any difference in this one to the styles he knew back in his life.
Not like he wanted to practice them, just something to pass the time for now till he could get better books when he would get older. A long hard yawn left his mouth after all the reading he did.
He wanted to play his games on his PC with the little time he had left before school, thinking he had a few minutes to burn.
Those plans changed when he heard footsteps his way, from the sound of them it had to be Mana coming over with his breakfast right on time. She always without fail made his breakfast, she loved cooking for him and giving him delicious meals so he could grow up to be big and strong. Mana reached his room, knocked on the door before entering the room with a tray of his food and a glass of juice.
"Ohayou gozaimasu Kousuke," Mana saying good morning affectionately to her son. Kousuke was excited about the food, Mana's cooking skills were worthy of her being a famous chef, but she chose to own her small business for families to come to eat at who were in hard times and wanted love in their food.
Despite the love and affection he received, Kousuke still didn't fully love Mana in the way a child should love a parent. To him Mana and Akane were good people, he respected them very much and was thankful for raising him, but he didn't feel a real obligation to love them. He figured he maybe get there in the future if he felt they met his standards, for now, he just gave them the formal approach so as not to break their hearts.
"Arigato Haha. This looks great. Itadakimasu!!!" Koutetsu ate his food completely with haste. He loved Mana's cooking as much as he loved his peace. Her cooking skills never disappointed, worthy of the success her restaurant was praised for in the neighborhood.
"Tehehe, my my someone's very hungry. Enjoyed your breakfast?" Mana asked.
"I did yes. I finished reading some of Jii-San's old training books. He was a genius leader. Akane-San must have been proud of him to keep all his stuff."
Mana smiled, she was happy that Kousuke respected his Grandfather with such high regard. His new grandfather, Sei Hayashi, was a brilliant Esper in warfare with his battle strategies and cool head. His death was devastating to the Army, more so to Akane who was her hero.
Mana still felt disappointed he didn't call Akane mom yet or any of the other forms like how he called her Haha, the formal Japanese way of saying Mother. It wasn't because he didn't want to be rude, it was because he wasn't used to having same sex parents, or how the proper way to refer to them worked since having two Mothers had different meanings. The Birth Mother was more obvious since that was what Mana was, the Primary Mother was the role like the Father figure to be. Akane was that one, everyone said what they wanted but he was still a by-book person so he waited to decide later what she would be called when he was ready to say it.
After finishing his breakfast Kousuke and Mana got ready to head to his school before she went to open the restaurant. The parents at the school would scowl seeing them arrive, they envied and hated the sight of Kousuke from him being born with his abilities while their children were not. Most of them had high hopes for their kids, but Kousuke having his abilities felt like salt on their wounds.
"Have a good day at school, Mama Akane will pick you up later. Love you Kousuke." Mana told him handing him his lunch for later and giving him a goodbye kiss. He would have felt embarrassed by people seeing that before, instead, he felt smug about his current situation. He gave a devilish smile to the other kids about how good his life was.
The school bell rang for the first class to begin, Kousuke made it to his homeroom on time as always, and the class murmured seeing him enter. They never liked his attitude and how arrogant he was, he couldn't help himself see their envy. He felt so superior to them because of his already smart mind, he viewed them all as primitives.
"Good morning class"
"Good morning Sensei!" The whole class said in unison.
"Now then, before we begin our new assignment has everyone reviewed the study material from earlier this week on the math questions?"
The class was silent. Most of the students didn't study or want to answer the questions on the board like a teacher's pet. Kousuke didn't care he answered all the questions correctly, and he wasn't even trying to be humble about anything.
The class grumbled at his action. As much as they didn't like each other they hated Kousuke more. The class went by quickly much to the owls' delight, it was lunchtime now. Everyone either went to the cafeteria or the benches outside. Kousuke however sat under a tree by himself to enjoy his boxed lunch alone without the kids annoying him. He opened his box to Mana packed an onigiri the size of his face with many fried shrimp tempura and a thermos of milk tea, his favorite drink. Kousuke had to consume a large amount of food due to his body burning through calories faster than others being a Prime Caliber. It was a chore for him to eat a lot, on the plus side he never gained weight from all the food so he didn't have to worry about his body getting fat, he could constantly eat and never have to care about his stomach getting big.
"You love showing off in class as always don't ya?" A sweet voice said. Kousuke looked up, in front of him was a little girl with short jet-black hair, ivory skin, a white hair ribbon with elegant designs, and amethyst colored eyes. Her name was Itsuki, Itsuki Shirayuki. She was the only one who didn't hate Kousuke like the others did. She was raised by a proper family that was against discrimination or petty hates. To them, it was unrefined of nobility and a waste of human effort.
"Oh, Hey Itsuki, how are you?"
"Hmph, getting cocky calling me on a first name basis now Hayashi. You forget you're not completely forgiven for the nonsense you pulled when you first arrived." Itsuki always called it straight with Kousuke. She never let him look down on her and in turn, he respected her for that. Itsuki and he still didn't call each other by first names yet, she was waiting for them to meet each other's families first for that, or at least hang out after school instead of on campus.
"Hehe, my bad. Forgive me Shirayuki-Hime." That annoyed her more being called that nickname he gave her. Itsuki's family was one of the Great families, there were five families at the moment with Itsuki's among them. They were the lead in rescue operations for the families living in the areas where Ghasts were sited and owned most of the major food companies they used for their restaurants and surplus stores. Kousuke made the name because of her family's wealth, and how her family name and looks made her resemble Snow White.
A vein bulged on Itsuki's forehead, she was going to get her payback on him. She looked at the bottle containing Kousuke's milk tea, letting out a small breath infused with magic she turned the drink into ice. Itsuki was a Caster specializing in ice magic, a legacy passed down in her family. Kousuke went to drink his milk tea only to have the ice cube of his drink slide out and hit his lips instead.
"Itai!" He shouted in discomfort.
Itsuki tried to hide her snickering with her eyes halfway closed and her hand covering her mouth. She was enjoying the prank she had pulled.
"Not funny." Kousuke looked at her with annoyed droopy eyes at her trick on him.
Itsuki got her laughs in for now, she always gave a prank or two on him when he would act out. Kousuke would never fight back against her, he stopped doing that long ago. She pulled her thermos out splitting her warm tea into Kousuke's thermos to replace the milk tea she had frozen for him.
"What are you doing out here anyway don't you normally eat inside? What's the change?" She asked him.
Kousuke didn't want to tell her the truth at first. He didn't want to eat inside the school because it was starting to remind him of his old one slowly now the more he was around the people inside.
He started to flashback to when he hid in storage rooms to eat in peace after years of his bullies stealing his food or ruining it. Granted, he did it to himself due to his attitude and inability to stand up for himself when it got physical. All the whispers and gossip about him he heard inside from the jealous students were starting to remind him again of that. He did his best to ignore it since starting school, but even he had his limits.
He shrugged it off and offered Itsuki a tempura, being nice to her for a change of pace when it came to sharing food with how greedy he was with Mana's cooking.
"I just…just wanted to try something different is all. That a problem?" Itsuki nodded no, she could tell he didn't want to answer her with what was bothering him. She took the tempura from Kousuke and sat next to him to eat her lunch of gourmet cooking that the family cook prepared, though she also liked Mana's cooking. Had that touch of tender love in it the cook was missing. She would ask Kousuke to introduce her to his parents for lunch, but he would always avoid it or turn down her offers to visit her place.
He did meet her younger sister at least and they got along well.
The two sat under the tree talking and eating for the duration of lunch. A peaceful afternoon was much warranted for them to have for their youthful bliss. Itsuki and Kousuke had a good friendship, the rocky start they had at first, faded over quickly.
Itsuki considered Kousuke her first real friend, she cherished her friendship with him even if he didn't say the same thing out loud.
They sat still just talking to pass the time, with subjects like the music they were listening to currently or movies that came out. Even though Kousuke didn't want to socialize, this was nice for him.
The school day ended, and Kousuke saw Akane drive up to the parking zone, he waved Itsuki goodbye as he ran to the car. Akane was happy to see her son coming to her, her schedule was getting crazier with increased Ghast sightings and terrorist activities.
"So how was school today?" Akane asked wanting to know her son's mood more often. She always felt like she was missing out on his childhood when she was away on deployments all the time.
"Same as always no complaints yet Akane-San." He responded.
Akane felt a little hurt that he still hadn't called her mom yet like Mana. She noticed he was still barely making an effort to get out of his room or make friends. She wanted to help him out and get him to be comfortable with leaving the house more often besides for school. In a split decision, she decided to take a detour to someplace fun to change that feeling. She drove in a different direction from the way home, she was heading to the arcade center at the mall close to their house.
"Were we going? This isn't the way home." Akane didn't answer. Kousuke wasn't pleased with this, he started getting nervous. In his head, he believed Akane was going to punish him for his unwillingness to do more with his youth. He tried staying calm so he wouldn't lose his cool in front of her. She made it to the arcade center after they reached the inside of the mall, with Kousuke begrudgingly following beside her, he stuck close to Akane holding her by her coat to avoid most of the crowds, being around them was making him more anxious.
The kids at school and the teacher were not as bad since the school was a place he felt safe in.
Akane saw his anxiousness, so she held his hand instead of letting him tug on her coat to make him feel secure to steady his nerves. Kousuke wasn't warm about it, but he did appreciate her attempt, he wasn't that heartless to let her effort go to waste.
Akane wanted to pick something more active than the standard games, and she hit the jackpot when she saw the laser tag room. Akane figured this would be perfect, so she eagerly got them in line and paid for them to play for a full round when they reached the counter so they could have fun. Kousuke sighed in disbelief, he just wanted to go home and read his books more, not do something he wasn't interested in. The clerk let them in with the rest of the group, Akane set up her gear first then Kousuke's, she was smiling at how embarrassed he looked being put in the laser gear.
"I want to go home." His voice said out with a bit of annoyance and a semi-quiet tone.
Akane could see he hated being here, but she wanted to be with her son, the military life was hard on her already, and it hurt her not to be around her child when she wanted to.
"Tell you what. You get one clean shot at me at the end of the round then we will. I get you, you have to play some more get some ice cream with me. How's that sound?"
Kousuke didn't want to take that bet, he didn't practice much in sports since the rebirth, but if he had to he was going to try and beat her at laser tag if it meant going home quicker.
"Fine, you're on." Kousuke declared not wanting to back down.
Akane was happy he agreed, she even gave him a hug for how happy it made her that he accepted her bet. The siren for the game to start went off, and both of them ran off in opposite directions, Akane shot at the other players with ease because of her training. Kousuke struggled a bit but his little body got better, adapting quickly, letting him sneak up on people more easily.
He was noticing the change in his body habit, it wasn't feeling anxious or halfhearted, it was excited like adrenaline flowing from chasing after the other players like he did in his old games. The feeling overcame his anxiety, he was having fun for once.
Akane and Kousuke were getting the other players fast, Kousuke was enjoying himself further, something he didn't want to admit out loud when Akane called out to him if he was having fun.
The last minutes of the round came, and it was just Akane and Kousuke left. Kousuke tried to find her, so he concentrated on hearing nothing except her breathing or footsteps, he eventually heard a breathing noise from the left side. He ran towards it thinking it was Akane, he was wrong, it was one of the little traps set up in the game to mess with players, a vent that shot out air and smoke. He realized he messed up, Kousuke didn't train himself to completely discern a difference between a real breath and a fake one.
Akane jumped from the corner and got him on the center sensor of the vest, she won the match in the end. Kousuke grumbled that he lost, he should have known better than to beat a soldier with no real training.
"I won. So what ice cream do you want?" Akane asked feeling joyous with the game.
Kousuke didn't answer. He was a little annoyed, but he felt like he wanted to go against her again. The feeling of wanting to go back to his room faded out during the game. This one was new to him, it was compelling him to play again.
"Can we go another round? I want to beat you at least once." He asked hurt with a small stutter.
Akane was taken aback, he never asked to hang around with her that often. Let alone she was surprised he wanted to go again of his own volition. She was happy, her smile was brimming that her son liked being near her and wanted to play more.
The two continued their duel till closing time. Kousuke didn't beat her, but he came close towards the end which he was proud of. Akane drove themselves home after the arcade center closed for business and picked up the ice cream she mentioned earlier. Mana was waiting for them at the house as she had dinner prepared earlier.
Akane parked the car in their driveway, she saw that Kousuke was passed out in his seat. She smiled at how adorable he looked. She picked him up carefully, with his body cradled in her arms, and she carried her little boy to his room to put him in bed. She blushed remembering how she didn't do this since he was a baby, it made her feel those old memories again.
She laid him down gently, removed his shoes, and covered him with her blanket, her humble eyes enjoying the sight of her son sleeping soundly.
"Should we wake him up to eat at least, his food will get cold." Mana had asked entering the room. Akane shook her head, her hand was rubbing Kousuke's hair, with her fingers combing through it like he was when he was a baby.
"No, let him sleep. He exhausted himself today. You should have seen it, the first time he looked happy outside of his room, maybe we'll do it again hopefully. Let's you and I eat, we haven't had a night to ourselves in a while. Think maybe you and I should have a goodnight before I leave again." Akane rubbed Kousuke's hair more. She kissed his forehead before leaving the room to spend time with her loving partner, picking her up like she did Koutetsu, with Mana giggling and kissing her Akane on the cheek.
"Goodnight, my miracle child," Akane said looking at Kousuke before closing the door. Kousuke slowly opened his eyes to a halfway reveal. He was rethinking everything in his head that he had known and felt.
'I won't say it to her. Not yet anyway, not till I'm ready. But, I'm glad she took me there. She got me to not want to come back to my room. I didn't like sports or any physical activity much before, and even now I just do what I can to get by or show off when I feel like it. I see now that I can't keep going on like this. I can't be a shut-in forever, this isn't the old me anymore. I may not be comfortable yet being outside completely unless for school, but I'll get there. I don't want to go back to that old way of living, I want to enjoy this life, the right way. Maybe I should try a little bit more to see what I can enjoy outside of being a bookworm this time. Just maybe, I'll try this time.'