Henry rested as he sat on the ground next to his bag. Henry's body ached and his cuts stung, but he needed to return home he passes out from exhaustion. While recuperating he pulled the diary out from his waistband and shoved it in his bag. Henry wanted to get a professional to examine the book as they might notice something he missed. Even a smidgen of new information could be useful. His arms took the brunt of the glass shards, so he bandaged them up using his worn PE clothes. It was not the best solution, but he could only make due for now. With that settled, Henry left for home.

Before returning home though he decided it would be best to treat his cuts before they get infected. Who knew the amount of dirt and bacteria covered those glass shards, it was better to be safe than sorry. He dropped by the local convenience store that was opened 24-7 to pick up some gauze and alcohol. Henry looked really odd with his torn bloodied uniform and wrapped up arms, but the exhausted employee paid him no mind to it. Henry left the store with a filled plastic bag and an empty wallet.

He cracked open an energy drink he just bought and took a seat on the pavement in front of the convenience store. Taking out his phone Henry searched the net and found a short tutorial on how to dress cuts wounds. He clumsily followed the tutorial making the occasional mistake causing himself unnecessary pain. It took about an hour to use all the alcohol and gauze. It did not mean he cleaned and dressed all his wounds though. He didn't have enough to dress all his wounds so he had to focus on the worse of the cuts. The actual process took little time once he got the hang of it.

Henry felt very lucky his risky move only got him shallow cuts and nothing serious. He planned to get a quick check up tomorrow to make sure he doesn't suddenly fall over and die. Henry was starving by the time he got home and it was too late to order anything other than fast food. so he planned to reheat left overs or cook some eggs. He plucked the spare key from under the door matt and entered.

His parents were usually fast asleep by this time, so he just needed to keep quiet. Sneaking to the kitchen he noticed a note on the counter. It had his mom's hand writing. The good news she had saved some food for him in the fridge. The bad news he needed to go grocery shopping tomorrow as punishment for coming back late. Henry didn't mind going grocery shopping as he can go through with his other plans while doing so.

He quickly scarfed down the food and went up to his room. His older sister used to be out all night, so tonight's small escapade was nothing. Her decision to go to college saved his parents from the headache of dealing with her constant outings. Before hitting the hay, Henry took a quick shower. He tried not to get the bandages wet, but there was only so much he could do. His body was on autopilot as he brushed his teeth and changed into clean clothes. He turned off the lights and passed out once his face hit the mattress.

—

In the morning a high student in casual clothes stood waiting in the mall. Henry checked his phone as waited for his friends to arrive. Both of them were late, so Henry searched for stores that restored damaged books on his phone in the meantime. His body ached, but that was to be expected. Thankfully the wounds were healing nicely and his usage of Mana sense has improved greatly.

"Ayo! Henry what's good." Jared walked up with a ice cream bar in hand. He wore the classic ahegao hoodie and sweat pants. The people walking by looked at him with gazes of disgust, except the few cultured individuals among them.

"Your late," Henry responded blandly.

"Time is subjective concept." Someone interrupted Henry before he could begin thrashing Jared.

"Sorry, I'm late guys. My mom had me change my outfit or she wouldn't have let me go." Charles was dressed in plain clothes that weren't particularly striking in anyway.

"Tsk, because of your tardiness we had to wait so long. To amend your actions you must pay for our snacks." Jared chastised Charles before he got thrashed right afterwards by Henry.

"Your fine, don't owe anything." Henry reassured him. "Alright lets go."

They explored the mall grabbing snacks and drinks. Their target was the arcade, with zero hesitation they tried to one up each other to see who could get the greater high score the fastest. Henry was the first to run out of coins so he went to get buy more at the counter. While he was at the counter Henry noticed a certain crimson haired guy. It was the class delinquent, Alex.

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Alex was with a couple delinquents he hung out with when going out. Surrounding them was a rather unfriendly looking group of delinquents. But that wasn't what caught his attention, no it was his mana. Alex's mana had increased from 2 times the average to 2.1, and Henry wanted to know how. He wanted to know how this happened. This new found desire to seek the new and interesting never showed itself before the System. Now though, it burned through his exterior and seeks to devour everything that caught his eye. And Alex had caught his eye.

The mean spirited group escorted Alex and his squad out of the mall. They started walking in the direction of the less populated region of the city. Henry quickly messaged his friends something popped up and followed the delinquents. The group seemed awfully observant of anyone following them, so he hung far behind out of sight. They weren't able to detect him but he was able to observe them without issue. His Mana sense was truly a cheat for stalking- scouting, scouting purposes. If Henry doesn't make any mistakes it was unlikely anyone would be able to get the jump on him. Last time's accident was due to his ignorance and a dash of overconfidence. He wasn't going to repeat that again, not after learning his lesson the hard way.

The delinquents brought Alex and his squad of four to an abandoned office building. Alex's group was visibly nervous, but Alex wasn't intimidated in the slightest. The leader of the delinquents step forward and spoke.

"Crimson demon, you messed with our goons and think you could get away with it!? Huh!" The leader's brows furrowed as slicked his dyed green hair back.

"You think our high school Blazing Storm is that weak!? Kick the shit out of 'em!" A dozen delinquents jumped the them at their leader's orders. They fought admirably at first, landing clean and heavy hits. The group clearly had some experience fighting together as they kept their backs against each other. But that fighting spirit was of no use when their stamina could no longer keep up.

The ones that got separated from the group were the first to fall. Then the others soon after and in the end only Alex was left. Alex's friends were unconscious and he himself was getting brutally thrashed. His nose bled and his body was bruised. Alex's knuckles were soaked in blood, most of which were not his own. A brief moment of respite came when the leader ordered them to stop. Henry watched as Alex's Mana channels showed unusual activity from outside the building.

"Crimson Demon, this weakling is nothing but a fraud." One of the goons snickered before he was shushed.

"Weakling, beg on your knees and we might just let you go without having to send you to ER." A devious smile crawled its way onto the leaders lips. Alex responding by spitting blood at him. The leader of Blazing Storm's gang did not take kindly to Alex's response.

"Fuck 'em up." That was all they needed to hear. The delinquents pounced on Alex taking as many cheap shots as they could using their numbers advantage. One of the more unruly delinquents managed to strike Alex's head with a pipe. However, Alex didn't go down no matter how much they struck him. Blood ran down his forehead enhancing Alex's grotesque grimace.

Alex's Mana channels suddenly ballooned up vacuuming the Mana in his surroundings. A vortex of Mana swirled around Alex as the whites of his eyes turned crimson. As Mana was formless and almost impossible to sense, no one noticed the change. Except Henry, and he looked on with glee.

A sickening crack entered everyone's ears. A goon looked down and he saw his arm facing the wrong direction. His shoulder was dislocated. The goon screamed in pain before falling unconscious. Some of the more warier delinquents stopped approaching him after seeing one of their own get all mangled up. To Henry the super strength was unexpected, but enjoyable to see. The tides have turned, and Alex was now on the offensive. Many more grunts and groans of agony were heard moments later. The remaining delinquents now pushed each other to get away from the Crimson Demon. Seeing the situation devolve the leader grabbed one of Alex's friends who was unconscious.

"Stay back Demon! If you want your friends to live do as I say!" The leader held a pocket knife to the friend's throat. Alex paused, he couldn't let his friend possibly die because of his unwillingness to lose. Alex's murderous glare portrayed the opposite though. The leader nerves calmed after seeing the Demon hesitate, but stayed cautious.

"Break your own arm! You heard me!? Do It!" However Alex just stayed still. The leader started panicking when he noticed he was slowly losing control of the situation. With resolve he stabbed Alex's friend. The knife dug into his upper back near the shoulder. After seeing Alex on the back foot, Henry decided to step in.

"I'm not messing around!! Do As I say!" The leader's kept his eyes locked on Alex. But in his tunnel vision he failed to notice another possible threat sneaking up on him from behind. Only when Henry was a but more than a dozen steps away did he finally notice. But it was already too late, Henry threw a fist-sized rock at the leader. It was no different than child's play, the short distance between them made any need for accuracy meaningless. The rock slammed into the leader's side stunning him. That small moment was all time Alex needed to knock out the leader. Alex passed out before he could thank Henry for the help. Henry thought it was no big deal as Alex's mana channels went through an interesting change after he fell unconscious. The chance to observe this occurrence was more than enough as a means of repayment.