Begging for Mercy

Tokyo, Adachi Ward.

Suimi High School, the men's restroom at the end of the third-floor hallway.

Splash.

Cupping a handful of water to splash his face, Akihi Yu turned off the faucet and looked up at the person in the mirror.

The boy in the mirror was about 1.75 meters tall and 16 years old. He was very handsome, with delicate features and fair skin, but his face wore a look of utter decadence, and his frame was somewhat frail.

Tsk, everything was going fine, so why did I have to transmigrate?

Rolling up his uniform sleeves to look at his slender arms, Akihi Yu couldn't help but sigh.

This body was too weak; it was time to "start" exercising again.

As a man, he should at least have some muscle definition, right?

But before that—

Wiping the water from his face, Akihi Yu turned to look at the three classmates who had entered the restroom.

"So you were here."

"Did you think you'd be safe hiding in the bathroom?"

Two stood to his left and right, while the third blocked the door, forming a triangle that sealed off any exit.

"Hey, you got such a huge sum of money, but you're not willing to share it with your 'friends'? That's not very loyal, is it? Yu~ class~mate~~"

The boy standing by the sink sneered, his eyes filled with excitement as he cracked his knuckles. As a public school in Adachi Ward, one of the areas with the worst public safety in Tokyo, two-thirds of the students were generally layabouts just waiting for graduation.

The remaining third belonged to the "special" class of the school.

For instance, the boy standing before them, who had transferred not long ago and whose parents had died in a traffic accident: Akihi Yu.

He was their target for bullying and extortion!

"Do you have to be this cliché?"

The scene before him made Akihi Yu sigh once more.

Whenever people gather, they inevitably divide themselves into ranks.

"Leave now, and no one will get hurt."

?!

The three of them froze upon hearing Akihi Yu's words.

"Huh? Hey, what kind of novel way of begging for mercy is this!"

"Don't tell me you're actually trying to fight the three of us? Did you lose your mind?"

On the other side, the boy standing by the restroom door laughed strangely and spread his arms. If a member of the baseball club had said that, it might have been a bit threatening, but this "sissy" in front of them dared to threaten them?

"Stop wasting breath on him, let's make him face reality first."

The boy by the sink had already taken a step forward. He didn't care how much money he could squeeze out of the other party; he was simply addicted to the feeling of punching people.

Only when he was hitting someone did he feel like he wasn't the "trash" his parents always called him!

Just then, Akihi Yu also stepped forward, twisting his waist and pivoting his body as his right fist carved an arc through the air.

Ding, Divine Tree—

Bang!

His jaw rattled, and the world spun in his eyes.

Before the guy by the sink could react, his consciousness plunged into darkness.

"Yamamoto?!"

A beautiful hook punch had landed precisely on the opponent's chin.

Amidst the instinctive gasps of the other two, their companion "Yamamoto" fell straight to the side, slamming heavily against the sink before sliding to the floor.

Since he had already struck, Akihi Yu didn't hesitate. After taking one down, he lunged toward the one standing stunned at the restroom door.

"Don't come over here!!!"

Letting out an instinctive, high-pitched scream, the boy pulled his arms in to shield his face, adopting a pose that looked like a boxing guard but was really just the posture of a frightened little girl.

.System online,

Ignoring the noise in his ears, Akihi Yu grabbed forward, his ten fingers locking onto the boy's shoulder blades.

He pulled downward while simultaneously driving his knee upward.

"Ah~~~"

With a short, sharp cry of pain, the boy took a solid knee to the abdomen. He collapsed forward onto the restroom floor, clutching his stomach like a curled-up shrimp.

???

The third person blocking the door was struck with terror.

In just a few seconds, two of his "companions" were lying on the ground, making him instinctively turn to flee.

"Assist the host."

He sprinted forward, reaching out with a grab.

He yanked the third person by the collar, and as the guy stumbled from the sudden turn, Akihi Yu exerted force to pull him backward.

Thud!

The third person slammed hard onto the restroom floor. The sharp pain radiating from his back restored a bit of his "ferocity."

"If you've got the guts, then—"

Bang!

A fist descended from above, smashing into his face and choking his threat back into his throat.

Bang! Bang!

Left and right, his fists rained down continuously.

The numbness and pain spreading across his face instantly extinguished the guy's "ferocity."

"I surrender, I surrender, I surrender!"

"Peak of life."

"What did you just say?"

Hearing the question from above, the boy shielding his face with his hands sobbed and wiped his nose, denying it repeatedly.

"I didn't say anything, I didn't say anything at all!"

"Not you, never mind."

Akihi Yu stood up and frowned.

There seemed to be some kind of sound just now. Could he be hallucinating?

"."

"Ding, the Divine Tree System is online. This system aims to help the host reach the peak of life. Please confirm receipt of the core item: Seed of the Divine Tree."

A system?

So it was the system; no rush.

Glancing at the three guys lying on the ground, Akihi Yu clapped his hands.

"Borrowing your catchphrase:"

"Don't let me see you again. Every time I see you, I'll beat you. Do you understand?"

"Understood, understood," X2.

Though they didn't know why, Akihi Yu, who had always been at the "bottom" of the class, had suddenly erupted. But the principle that "a wise man does not fight when the odds are against him" held true in any world and any country.

Between the intense pain in their bodies and the calm tone of the other boy, the two students scrambled up from the floor. Facing Akihi Yu, they dared only to crouch, nodding like garlic cloves.

As for Yamamoto, who had rushed in the fastest?

He had taken a haymaker to the chin and was currently enjoying "baby-like" sleep.

Under the trembling gazes of the two guys, Akihi Yu straightened his uniform in the mirror above the sink and walked out of the restroom.

He didn't care about the three guys on the floor.

School bullying was something that could never be truly eradicated, just like the fact that there would always be rich and poor people in the world.

The former Akihi Yu had been an easy target due to the death of his parents, a series of mental blows, and his frail physique.

But after the transmigrator arrived, his methods changed completely. His father's teaching from his past life was: don't go looking for trouble, but if someone dares to provoke you, hit them back immediately!

Thud.

"Ow~~"

Just as he stepped out of the men's restroom, Akihi Yu collided head-on with a figure hurrying toward him.

He instinctively reached out to grab the person! As his gaze swept over, his fingers, which had been aimed straight for the neck, shifted mid-air to steady her instead.

"Class Monitor?"

"Not Class Monitor, it's Nao."

The girl, who had been sent stumbling by the impact, adjusted her glasses and retorted with annoyance.

She had neat, short hair and a gentle temperament, radiating the aura of a kind older sister next door. She wore round-rimmed glasses, giving her the appearance of a model student.

"I heard Yamamoto and the others were looking for trouble with you."

"Not at all."

Holding the girl by the shoulders, Akihi Yu spun her around one hundred and eighty degrees and pushed her away.

"We're all classmates, why would we look for trouble with each other?"

"Let's go, class is about to start."

"Ah~~ b-but."

Pushed forward by Akihi Yu the entire way, the heat radiating from his hands through her summer school uniform left the girl's mind in a chaotic whirl, and she did not even know where to begin with a rebuttal.

Yu. How did he become so assertive?

Because he had transmigrated!

It happened just a few days ago; he closed his eyes and opened them to find himself on a bed on the second floor of a detached house in Tokyo's Adachi Ward.

In the local parlance, it was called a 'detached house'. That was not the point, however; the point was that the bewildered transmigrator, after repeatedly confirming this was not his own body and that he possessed over a decade of memories that were not his, had to accept the truth after 'scaling the wall' to go out and failing to find any trace of his 'original self':

He had transmigrated, and to a parallel world's Tokyo at that.

"Hey!"