“Robin, why did you hit your sister when she was just helping you?” Isaac asked his son while having him seated in front of him in the living room. Charlotte was with the saddened Ruth after the two got home.
Although none of the children had reported the facts, the girls that saw Robin hit away Ruth had reported it and in turn the parents were called.
“I never asked for her help.” he said coldly.
“Son, why are you like this to your sister? Didn’t you love her?” Isaac asked, trying to see the inside of his son’s thoughts. Naturally he knew about them being compared.
“Because of her, I am laughed at by everyone.” He said and gritted his teeth and his hands were clenched. Naturally as a child, intense anger soon led to a build up of tears. That said when Isaac was going to pick him up he struggled until he was put down. “I don’t want pity! I want to get stronger and prove to everyone that my power is strong!” he shouted and ran off out the door to the back yard.
“Robin! ROBIN!” Isaac shouted and went after him but his son would avoid him with his all and jumped into the shed soon after and hid behind some boxes and in the corner well hidden.
“Robin, come out so we can talk. Please son, you don’t have to be mad at your sister and us for all this.” Isaac said, his heart hurting at his son’s pain.
He looked around until he heard a very quiet muffled cry and soon found his son in the corner. He sighed and crawled in with his son and took him in his lap but said nothing for a long time.
“Come on, let’s go inside, take a nice warm bath and talk with your mom, maybe we can see if we can figure something out for you.” he said.
Robin barely nodded and let his father take him inside and put him in a warm bath alone to soak, the water being something he felt very comfortable in now as his own body absorbed only the pure water when in contact with it.
During that time, Isaac spoke with his wife and the two reluctantly decided that they would take him to a gym known for its quality results in helping people train both their bodies and their abilities as they have countless specially built equipment for all breeds of powers and development plans.
When Robin was pulled out Isaac smiled, “Alright, I talked with mommy and we decided to take you to a gym. That way you can train like you want.” Isaac said.
“Really!?” Robin said surprised before hugging his dad, still half wet.
The man smiled weakly but didn’t let his son see his sadness that he was so fixated on this path and didn’t want to live a life like a normal person.
***
After the first incident, it became common knowledge among the students that Marcus liked to bully weak power children. His favorite was Robin. The boy, despite having free time to play, would instead want to try and train. Of course the way he did it now was far better as he started to go to the gym.
Gyms were built by many skilled trainers and their main focus is to make sure that people were training properly. For Robin, who wanted to stretch, after they learned about his powers, they decided that just using his own natural stretch was plenty to start out.
They showed him several exercises such as sitting with the legs straight while grabbing a fixed object in front of them and laying down to stretch. This worked out his entire back and body to be able to stretch. In the same position, he also used his arms as rubber bands to work his upper arm muscles by having him only leave the elbow down extended and he pulled back a number of repetitions.
Naturally the legs had a similar format of workouts that would focus on stretching his body more and more while working out his muscles. For one, he would sit in a high up platform while weights were holding his leg stretched to the max and he had to pull it up using just his muscles from the knee down to pull it up. Another similar to the arms, he would sit laid down with a solid bar or object on his back while his feet were tied partially stretched to another item and he would do crunches.
Naturally he had no special accelerated growth but the intense exercise did work wonders to let him let off steam. It made him a little more friendly in class and just a small bit more approachable. That said because of the jokes made behind his back, he had already become quite keen towards second intentions but he actually had two real friends that sat with him.
The first is a boy from a japanese family named Shoji Takahiro. He has close to no really special features and looks wholly human unlike many kinds of people that have different body alterations. That is because he has a psychic ability. That said, like Robin himself, it was an almost useless ability for heroism but an excellent power if he aimed to be a police investigator or such. His ability is known as Sense emotion, it is as the name says, he can see the emotions of those around him through an aura surrounding them, even if that person is hiding it deeply.
Lola Stone is his other friend. Her power, although looking impressive, is highly restrictive from what is known. She is the first of her family to have such a power mix so the countless features aren’t fully known. Her ability is called Demon, similar to her mother's ability that is called familiar, it allows her to harness her very life force and form a body before spawning the soul of a demon from an unknown place. What is more is that she can only spawn one demon which is always the same one as a special brand was forged on it. Naturally, the disadvantage of this is that after spawning, her body is much frailer due to as much as 50% of her life force being used to form the demon’s body.
Of course she doesn’t lose it, if she unsummons it, the life force returns to her and if the demon is destroyed, in around a day or two she would have fully recovered her lost life force. The problem is that, like her mother, it appears that the demons grow by gathering life force which requires intense training and actual hunting but the strength of the demon is far lower compared to the familiar. How she formed a demon spawning ability is due to her father who has a demon aspect ability in which he forms wings, tails and horns, all of which improve his physical body abilities.
At this time the three were together at the same small playground area that Robin had been training when Marcus tried to bully him. Naturally he was not playing but surprisingly neither was Shoji.
The small nerdy looking boy with a pair of glasses, typical pure black hair and white skin japanese wearing short sleeves shirt and shorts held a polished wooden sword and was in the stance of a swordsman about to attack.
He raised his wooden sword and slashed down one after another just that same movement in that same stance.
Robin in turn was sitting under the monkey bars and had his feet on the first step while he held the two sides of the ladder and exercised like he did in the gym.
“You guys are so weird.” Lola said as she sat on the slide.
“Alright… but you’re the… weirdest for… hanging out… with us?” Robin said through batted breaths.
Shoji stopped and looked her way, “Shouldn’t you actually be working out as well? I mean, life force is linked to physical strength and having a strong body will let you get a headstart for the children's exams when we are 10 to see if our power and strength are at trainee standards.”
“Lily is already hunting for bugs. Also when she is spawned, i can’t exercise well and get tired fast so i just wait for later.” She said.
Lily is the name of her demon, in fact, the demon isn’t exactly stupid and only the body limits her power and abilities. In fact it is actually a strong demon and through a mental link she can speak with Lola. The demon has a real name but it is very complex and long so everyone just calls her lily to which she doesn’t mind.
“You are lucky… to get such a lazy power.” Robin said as he reached his limit and let go before his body laid down covered in sweat.
“Hey! I am not lazy!” She complained.
“Yes, you are.” The two boys bluntly said to her, making her pout.
“If you really wanted to, you would work out even when your demon is spawned so when it returns your life force, it will heal you faster and grow more efficiently.” Shoji said.
As a psychic ability user, Shoji’s brain is also more powerful, what's more, his background isn’t exactly normal. It isn’t as abnormal as Marcus but it isn’t normal either.
Shoji comes from a Japanese warrior family. What this means is that his family trains in traditional martial arts to make up for their normally weak ability. Most if not all of the family has the same power due to its dominant genetic status. That said, it still allows them to surpass their limits so from a very young age, they are trained in martial arts as a form of discipline including hand to hand as well as sword arts which is why he walks around with a wooden sword which is actually made of very heavy wood.
Lola’s cheeks became like balloons as they puff out to their max and she trembles in anger before just slides down.
The brown haired and very pretty little girl stomped her way and kicked both of their legs.
The boys though just avoided her kicks laughing.
“Get back here!” She said and ran after them but the boys were boys, especially active boys at that, and she soon tired out and sat down.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Robin crouched down next to her head and poked her soft cheeks.
“See, you need to train more so that you can catch us.” he didn’t stop poking her, making her angry as she tried to slap away his hands and even bite it as he poked her.
“Hey…” Shoji suddenly said seriously.
The two stopped and looked towards Shoji and looked at the way he was looking and saw Marcus grinning at them.
He didn’t come over but just looked, making the three lose their fun.
“He is so annoying.” Robin growled and stopped playing with Lola, who also got up and dusted off her dress, with the help of Robin to get the areas of her back she could not reach.
At this moment a small red little demon holding a small black trident appeared and landed on her head.
“Lily, you’re back, did you eat lots?” Lola asked.
The little demon licked her lips while looking down at her from above before looking at Marcus and narrowing her eyes.
“No Lily, you don’t have to go hit him, he didn’t do anything… yet.” Lola said, stopping her from doing anything to the boy.
The basic abilities of the demons were very weak and to use her magic required Lola’s life force which was actually just to form a weak fireball.
Although it is weak, it is enough to do damage because it is hard to put out and the perfect example was when Lily actually first used that ability and set fire to Marcus’s bag and was barely able to put it out before the bag was rendered useless. The next day he came glaring at her with a totally new backpack.
That said, it also made him cautious around her.
“So what did you hunt today?” Robin suddenly asked the little demon, finding it strangely adorable.
The glaring demon looked at him and licked her lips.
“She said she ate five whole geckos and 20 bugs.” Lola said in her place.
That said, in return, Robin poked its belly, “Than you need to train lots or you will become a fatty demon like the dumb monkey and might not even be able to fly.” he joked with it.
“GRA!” the little imp exclaimed in anger upon hearing his words.
Lola laughed at the actions of the demon, especially after she took flight to show that she could easily do it.
After school they each went their separate ways living in different areas from each other.
On the bus, Ruth sat a few seats away from Robin and every so often she would look his way.
“Hey Ruth, why do you always look at your brother?” one of her friends asked.
“I want to get back on good terms with him.” she said depressed.
“Really? But isn’t he being the mean one? Why do you have to go after him? Shouldn’t he come to you to apologize for being mean?” one of them asked.
Ruth didn’t know how to reply. At their stop they got off together and she clenched her fist and asked, “Robin, want to go to the playground?” she asked.
“No.” he said bluntly, not even giving a reason why.
“But we haven’t played together in so long…” She cried out.
“I don’t have time to play, I need to get stronger.” he said.
“Why?” She said.
“To prove my power isn’t weak.” He said.
She looked at him with a frown, “To who? No one ever told you you were weak besides Marcus. No one besides him cares.” she said.
“To everyone, I want to prove that weak powers can be strong.” he said and ignored anything she said after that.
Like he said, he went out after getting dressed, this time to jog. The stretching exercises are for strength and to expand his rubber’s range but jogging is for stamina and endurance.
She looked at him leave and went to her room crying into her pillow for a while before getting up and putting on some other clothes.
“Ruth, where are you going?” Charlotte asked.
“Robin wants to be mean and makes a dumb excuse for avoiding me so from now on i will train just like him and make him pay attention!” She said, fed up.
She slammed the door as she ran out and waited for Robin to appear. They lived in a condo so the roads circled around. When she saw him jog past she ran right after him keeping pace.
“What are you doing!?” He asked.
“You want to just leave me behind but I don't want to! If you are going to train then I will too, if you want to prove you are strong then you have to be stronger than me first!” she said.
This pissed him off as the only thing he had been doing until now was started by her. “I won’t let you get stronger than me!” He said and began to speed up and she followed until the two were at a full sprint. Of course, they had little to no endurance as children so in no time at all they were exhausted.
From then on, no matter the activity the twins did it together because Ruth never let Robin do it alone, making sure their relationship didn’t completely fall apart but transformed into something like a sibling rivalry.
When the two children were 10 years old in the 3rd grade, they finally had their first heroics exam.
This exam was directly managed by the American Union and done in all schools during PE to measure the current growth of the children. A more common name is the physical exam. Those who do this exam though are those who are aiming to enter the world of heroism. From speed, flexibility, strength, dexterity, intelligence and more, all the children undergo many different tests to see their base parameters and estimate how long until they can get their Trainee license.
For Ruth and Robin, Speed, flexibility and intelligence were all identical. Robin underwent many harsh training using very strange machines that stretched his maximum limit already to 10 meters and he could already use his elasticity like most elastic heroes. That said, it was at the strength that things turned a bit ugly.
“Wow, 700 points!” the examiner exclaimed at Ruth’s strength test from the punch machine after she stretched her arm back and used the rubberband effect by quickly pulling it back to add force.
The most basic strength value of a trainee is 1000 points. For any trainee, their strength has to be 1000 points. Of course, the base for strength ability power users was far higher naturally as they needed to set a base for each type of ability.
“Next is Robin.” the man said after the machine was rest.
Robin breathed deeply.
“You can do it Robin!” Lola shouted from behind. The three childhood friends still studied together even now in the same school and the two had also come to also get their exams as they trained just as much as Robin.
He clenched his fist and tossed it back causing it to stretch back the full length before pulling it and bending his elbow as the rubber arm returned and hit the machine
Ding!
“610 and ten points, good job.” the man said.
“Huh?” Robin muttered as he heard the points and looked at the machine. “Is… is that right?” he asked.
“Hmm? Of course, none of our machines are broken.” The man said.
“H-how is Ruth stronger!? My power is more strength based!” Robin said.
“Robin… stop already.” Ruth said, trying to calm him down.
PA
He slapped her hand away, “No there is no way I am weaker! Even if I have to copy…” Before he said anymore his arm stretched again.
“Young man, your turn is over!” the examiner said but suddenly Robin’s elbow seemed to open as the stretched arm seemed to fold in on itself and formed something like a cannon barrel and he punched the machine. Just before the hand reached, a black color spread over his fist and traveled back.
BANG!
The machine rocked and Robin was tossed back by his own force. “Ah!” he cried as he held his arm. The move he copied was from an anime but the execution wasn’t perfect. Folding his arm in like that required that his bones were literally spread in the same way and folded in on itself. Still through his pain he raised his head and grinned. The glaring 850 points made him grin in pain.
“You are so reckless.” Shoji walked over looking down at him and sighing. “You are so stupid every time you get a score so much lower than Ruth.”
“I proved… I was stronger at least.” he said and slowly got up while his arm trembled. Lola was gone but after a short while she appeared with a bucket of water. “Here, you were stupid to use your hardening power so suddenly. We all know your strength greatly increases when you harden but the backlash isn’t something you can deal with easily.” She said, putting down the bucket.
“Yeah, sorry.” he said and put his trembling hand into the water feeling the coolness penetrate his skin.
The water level slowly lowered while he drank a sports drink he had previously prepared.
“You need to figure out something different from that folding style you copied. It is too reckless and does too much self harm.” Ruth said worriedly.
Robin rolled his eyes, “Whatever.” he said.
“Seriously.” she sighed, rubbing her head while looking at her brother.
Naturally, women start puberty before men so it is obvious that she was already a bit taller and stronger than him.
Afterwards, although he got a stern warning about his actions they used his 850 point score but withdrew 100 points because he can’t actually handle the force in his own attack making him only 50 points higher than Ruth.
He was still happy about that since he was above her in something.
“Well, we have finished the tests, we will pass out the test sheet and you can see more or less the estimate of your growth.” the committee head leading the exam said.
The group soon got their scores.
“I am estimated to get mine more or less by 15 years old.” Shoji said. “That is within the low end of my family's growth estimates.” he said, nodding with a smile.
“Yes! 14 is my estimate! I knew having Lily do all those extermination requests would eventually pay off!” Lola exclaimed as she happily waved her paper.
Life force gained from the demon is gained from a mixture of training and eating living creatures. As they process the matter it slowly converts it into life force through training where it most efficiently assimilates the energy from the eaten creatures. As for what life force produces in the user, the effect of gaining more increases her potential and the effect of training rises the more she has.
“I also have 14, it said my elastic powers are greatly matured and my range is enough as too much range is also a bad thing since it creates weak points.”
“Why…” Robin muttered.
“Something wrong?” Shoji asked.
Robin suddenly turned to an examiner and ran over. “Why is my estimate 16 when my sister is 14?!” Robin exclaimed.
The examiner was shocked and took his paper and began to read through it. “I see, your power is hardening rubber. Hardening powers are regarded as strength types. Not elastic types.” he said and turned the page back to Robin pointing to a specific note.
“Estimate will be 14 years old as long as I can learn to support the full strength of my ability. Full strength?” Robin said, looking at the examiner.
“I remember seeing your strength test. Your first punch was only your rubber and the other was using both hardening and rubber. That is why you were put behind your sister, you need to learn to use your ‘full’ power over half your power.” the examiner said and handed it back to Robin who took it solemnly and walked back to his group.
“You okay?” Shoji asked.
“Yeah… I just need to think… and maybe research.” he said quietly but then froze as he looked around. “Where is Milo?” he asked.
“I didn’t see him today.” Lola replied.
Veins appeared on Robin’s head before he cupped on fist in the other and cracked his knuckles. “Don’t tell me that idiot didn’t come to school, today of all days.” Robin grinned while slowly cracking his shoulders and back.
The others knew exactly what was coming for the last of this group of childhood friends. Their last friend, Milo Knight, the only person to befriend Robin while having something that can even be called a superpower. What is it? Well… he is the first in his family of Bone manipulators to be born with the power of Necromancy.