Chapter 20: The Center of Attention in the Gym
When Asuna and Asagiri walked into the gym together, they saw several students and a few young teachers already exercising on treadmills and machines.
The moment the door opened, a few curious gazes turned toward them. Unlike everyone else who came dressed for training, both Asagiri and Asuna were still wearing their school uniforms.
There was nothing they could do about that. It was the first day of school, and the uniforms for sports class hadn't been handed out yet. Because of this, there were almost no first year students in the gym.
After all, what normal student would spend their first day of high school working out instead of exploring clubs?
Seeing that the teachers and students only glanced at him and quickly looked away, Asagiri frowned with a displeased expression.
"Hm? No one is giving me hostile looks… I see. It's only the first day, just one morning. Even if my story is already spreading in the high school department, it hasn't reached everyone yet." He nodded to himself. "Which means I still need to work harder."
Asuna, already getting used to his personality, still couldn't stop herself from retorting.
"No… this is the first time I've met someone who actually wants to be ostracized and bullied."
"Ostracize me? Don't be ridiculous."
Asagiri waved dismissively.
"Originally, I had no need to interact with them. I'm not the type who needs to blend into a group to feel a sense of belonging. Most students in Shuchiin Academy aren't worthy of interacting with me anyway. As for bullying… that's even more laughable."
Asagiri smiled faintly and spoke in a tone that made Asuna's heart tighten.
"These students want to bully me? I made a deal with Ashikaga-sensei, so I will help her fix this disgusting, rotten atmosphere in Shuchiin."
"I don't have the time to deal with each stubborn minded person one by one. So I'll let them come to me. Then I'll teach them what real bullying is, so they can personally experience the despair of humiliation and helplessness."
"This can also be considered teaching them the lesson of not doing to others what they don't want done to themselves. They try to harm me, and I respond with kindness. Honestly, I'm too gentle."
Asuna didn't know how to reply. Instead of worrying for Asagiri, she felt worried for the first year students who would be stuck in the same school as this walking calamity for three years.
People seemed to forget that this boy casually chatted with a three meter tall blood faced servant, beat up five delinquents alone, and even killed someone the first time he entered a dungeon.
Compared to that, the bullying schemes of pampered Shuchiin students were nothing more than child's play.
She wondered who would be the next unlucky person to provoke him.
......
A few minutes later, Asuna stood beside Asagiri at the squat rack, watching him load weight plates onto the barbell.
Just as he finished setting the weight and was about to squat, a middle aged man wearing sportswear and built like a PE teacher noticed them and quickly approached with a frown.
"Hey, student, that weight is too heavy. And you're not even wearing a weightlifting belt. This must be your first time here, right? You should start with something light to warm up and add weight slowly. Squats are dangerous. If you really want to train, I can spot you. It'll be safer."
Asagiri simply smiled, stepped under the barbell, lifted it with perfect form, and calmly completed a squat under the teacher's stunned gaze.
"For me, this is just a warm up weight."
The PE teacher blanked out.
"Ninety kilograms… is a warm up?"
Ninety kilograms wasn't outrageous for someone from a sports university. But to see a high school student squat it with no belt, no warm up, and no hesitation was unbelievable.
Before the teacher could recover, Asagiri moved again in a way that left him even more speechless.
"It's still too light."
He casually picked up two twenty five kilogram plates and added them to the bar, bringing the total to one hundred forty kilograms.
By this point, everyone in the gym had stopped to stare.
Asagiri stepped back, lowered into a squat, then stood up effortlessly and even added a light bounce at the top.
"Holy crap…"
"This guy… is he human?"
"The barbell is bending… how strong is he?"
"Who is he? I've never seen him before."
The PE teacher and the others were completely stunned.
Asagiri's physique wasn't bulky or heavily muscled. He was slender, yet he lifted the weight like it was nothing.
What no one knew was that this wasn't even his limit.
He had already been able to squat this weight back in middle school. Right now, he was testing how much the Human Asura passive had raised his physical strength.
By his own estimate, his maximum squat could easily exceed two hundred kilograms.
But doing that in public would be too shocking.
After Asagiri racked the barbell with an easy, relaxed expression, the PE teacher hesitated for a moment before asking tentatively:
"Could it be… you're the new student everyone's talking about? Asagiri?"
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