Target 2: Essences

"So Kuoh is a middle-size town in the Chubu Region bordering the Kansai Region and in the last couple of years has increased its size thanks to outside investment…quite weird since there is nothing particular about this town that could make investors interested in it, as it is not an important travel route nor have something interesting for tourism." I was reading all the information available on the internet about my "hometown", it seems that technically I went back in time since it is 2009 so I have knowledge of future events that I can use when I reach 18. 

"As for Kuoh Academy, it seems to be a prestigious private school in the locality with an Escalator System from Primary school to college and was an all-girls school but this year changed to co-ed…well, I do not care much about that, if it is a good school it can be helpful to my resume." There are many factors to get into a good college, of course, if I keep good grades I could go to Kuoh College without much trouble ....but I will do my best, I do not make half-assed efforts, not anymore. 

I will take a stroll around the town later but first the important thing, the Essences…..

Starting with Essence of Combat Prodigy : 

The first effect is that it gives me an advanced level of control over my body, something that I was thankful for since it's been a while since I had a flesh body so it would have felt weird to control it. 

Also, it made me a Shonnen protagonist in the regard that the more I fight the stronger I will become, of course, it is dependent on how strong the other party was, so the stronger the foe the stronger the boost, that and also a boost from training so basically I have no excuses to not become physically strong. 

Another thing is that I can pull off the "Monkey See Monkey Do." with combat techniques that are not unique to themselves or require a specific type of "Energy" that I do not have. In other words, if I was in One Punch Man I could copy the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist of Bang or Atomic Samurai sword style just by looking at it, but it does not transfer to instant Mastery. 

And as the name says I become a prodigy at combat, everything related to physical combat becomes a lot easier for me than it would be for a normal person, either with weapons or just with my body, I can learn and create combat skills. So no matter what weapon I want to master, what martial art is, or even if I am the one creating or creating the martial art, I will be able to do it eventually.

And that is all the information that I gained related to this Essence. Honestly, it is very scary that this was the diluted version, I cannot imagine what are the effects of the real deal. But I also remember that Agent K said that there are things hidden about the essences that I will have to discover by myself…Damn, what kind of monsters are the people that have multiple complete Essences. 

As for the Essence of Refinement: 

Similar to what I thought from the beginning, it allows me to potentially refine anything to perfection and beyond…whatever that is. It removes the "taints" of anything that I see as a drawback or limitation…pure unadulterated bullshit. 

But of course, since this is a "diluted" version I only have the potential to do that, as I have to practice with this power, so for the moment I am limited to the things that I can refine. Non-living objects are something that I can Refine for the moment like a knife or my computer, but depending on how strong/special they are it would take me a lot of time. Living beings/objects, concepts, and non-corporeal things will require me more expertise in the process so I can refine them. The good thing is that I do not need knowledge beyond what I want to refine but having deep knowledge of the things I am refining helps a lot in saving time.

Also, the process of refinement is not something that I have to do continuously. There are stages in the process to call it in a way, for example, if I am refining a knife that is in Stage 0, I do not have to do the whole process until it reaches Stage 1. I can stop the process, do other things that I have to do, and come back later and restart the process at the very exact point before leaving.

There are two ways in which I can refine things.

The first one is the Active Mode in which I have to touch what I want to refine to remove its "taints", like drawbacks, limits, etc. Make a sword sharper, armor more durable, make a poison stronger or when I reach the level of affecting living beings I can refine the ability to heal faster, my internal organs stronger, have better vision, etc. 

As for the Passive Mode, I can leave a mark with a design of my choice in whatever I want to refine by either looking at or touching them. The mark can be invisible to others if I want. And whatever is marked will refine passively even if I am not near it, but only at the half speed it would if I was doing it by myself. But I can only mark targets after I have refined them 5 times. 

So yeah, this power with time will become broken as fuck, not to mention the hidden secrets that it has within it. Honestly, I think that this one is less diluted than Essence of Combat Prodigy, or at least I think so since I cannot fathom the idea of the complete one. 

And finally my favorite by nostalgia and being the only one that is not diluted, the Essence of Dying Will:

To begin with, it gives me perfect physical fitness and health. So from the start, I am as physically fit as a top-class athlete, maybe a little better but I need to check out the exact limits of that by myself.

But the most important thing is that I have no limits on how strong I can become. I thought that I would gain that benefit with Essence of Combat Prodigy but maybe because it is a nerfed Essence, I did not get that benefit from it. 

It increased my resolve and willpower to an absurd degree. I consider that I had great willpower since I remained somewhat sane after the whole bullshit of the BROB(Bastard Random Omnipotent Being), so it speaks to how strong my resolve and willpower are now. So no matter what I set myself to do, nothing will stop me, not even if my body is falling to pieces. 

And something related to the last thing is that I have lots of vitality and a strong Life Force. Having a strong Life Force means that not only is it above the average in quantity but also in quality, something a little bit obvious taking into consideration what are the Dying Will Flames. 

The next thing and something that I am very grateful for, is that it gave me a genius-level intellect as well as perfect memory! Of course nothing too close to the bullshit level of Aizen-sama but still way above the average. With this not only will getting to a good college be easier, but also will help me to develop some things necessary for the future. 

And starting on the heavy-hitting abilities and hax. I can utilize Dying Will Flames, which are a high-density form of energy that is refined from my life force, resolve, and willpower in the form of Fire for most of the flames. There are 15 types of flames if we ignore the ones that are the combination of more than one flame and I have the potential of using all of them! 

That is high-level bullshit we are talking about. In the manga excluding Daemon Spade, Gokudera Hayato(not me), was the one who could use more Dying Will Flames out of all the characters, and he could just use 5 when I could use all of them. Both the Dying Will Flames of the Sky, the Dying Will Flames of the Earth, and the Flame of Night. 

I raised my right index finger and a little orange flame appeared, this was no other than the Sky Flame, the rarest and strongest of the Seven Dying Will Flames of the Sky which represents Harmony. And with a simple thought it changed, so instead of having the characteristic orange color of the Sky Flame, the core turned into an ordinary shade of red while the inner layer was a pale red and the outer edges were dark. This one was the flames used by the other Gokudera Hayato, the Storm Flames that represent Disintegration. 

As for the moment I can only use one Flame at a time, it seems that I need to reach a certain threshold with each of them to not be restricted by this. But on the bright side, different from the people from that universe, I do not need a ring to manifest any of the Flames, however…

With another thought something materialized in my index finger…A ring.

The output and strength of the flame increased by a considerable margin and the control that I have over it was better. 

So another of the abilities of the Essence, is that I can conjure Rings from all the flames attributes that are on par with the Vongola Ring, Mare Ring, and Simon Rings. As well as the knowledge and capability to create Box Weapons and with the Animal Box-Type I can convert them into rings….but I still need to get the materials to make them. 

It is not like my output at base without a Ring will stay the same, it will increase as I get stronger and more skilled. But still having the rings will help me a lot and along with the Essence Of Refinement…the OPness is at the palm of my hand. 

And speaking of OPness…well I can enter in the Hyper Dying Will Mode without the Criticism Shot or the Dying Will Pill…OP. As it removes my inner limiters, increasing my awareness and allowing me to have more precise control over my Flames, also it seems that I kinda enter a fighting mode. Like Tsuna, my emotions are more on hold which allows me to have better judgment in battle. Sure Sawada Iemitsu was able to do this, but that was with tons of years of practice, maybe Giotto A.K.A Vongola Primo was able to do this as well.

And the final hax I have is Hyper Intuition which is constantly active. I can predict my enemy's next move as long as it is alive. Upcoming dangers even if I do not realize what exactly the danger is. Also, it allows me to see through illusions, this however is not absolute as I can still be fooled. But my favorite part of Hyper Intuition is that now I can tell when someone is lying to me and have a general sense that someone is trustworthy from just a glance. 

Honestly, this is excellent for my future, sure I can imagine that it must suck realizing how much everyone is lying. But it will save me the hassle of associating with fakes and give me the upper hand depending on what I decide to study. 

A complete Essence is absolutely broken…with the other Essences I can believe that there are still things to be discovered…but this one? If I have to describe myself it would be as a bullshit protagonist in an Isekai novel ....well I got the part of Isekai in the box.

"It is not like I can straight up do some of the bullshit things that the others did in the manga I need to practice a lot, even more taking into consideration the fact that I have multiple Flames…but first I should go out to check out the town it would be embarrassing to get lost on the first day on school, besides it would be nice to have a look of the exterior after so long." 

….

Kuoh Town

Gokudera Hayato P.O.V 

"This is the best." I could not help but have a big smile on my face... 

After being in that place for who knows how long, where I could not feel anything. The simple action of having a stroll around the town feels better than I could describe. 

April's slightly cold wind on my face, the smell of the sakura blossoms that just blossomed in the air. Actual feeling of stepping on the ground and not just having that phantom feeling. I will admit that the noise is a little overwhelming after hearing nothing but my own voice for a long time but not something annoying if anything it is welcomed, and the sight, well… is more than pleasant, to say the least

The women of this world are on average more beautiful than they were in my other life and many of them have bodies hot as fuck. If I didn't have a perfect memory I would say that is just my imagination after being in that damn place for years. Thankfully it seems that my hair color is not that unusual since from time to time I can see other people with different hair colors even if brown and black hair is still predominant. Also, many of them are blushing looking at me. It seems that like the other Gokudera Hayato, I will have a lot of fangirls, for folks' sake some of them are giving me predatory gazes. Am I on a Hentai World?

I would not be surprised since I was walking without an aim. I ended up on a street full of Love Hotels in the area. I would not be surprised since it is something common back home, but with the size of the town, it is just fucking ridiculous how many there are taking into consideration the size of the town.

But it doesn't concern me at the moment, since I have better things to do than getting my dick wet. I ain't have time for that, I have to grind all the Essences benefits as well as study to get into college. Speaking about the former, I found an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the town, even the area around it is empty so it is a good place to train without raising many suspicions with the light display not to mention that is pretty big. 

I can also scrap some metals and old machinery to practice with Essence of Refinement, I will purchase other things to refine, but I want to see firsthand how the change from trash to legendary is done. Maybe I should check if there are some Junk Yards around, once I get proficient enough I could refine things to resell them and gain some money. 

Even if the money that those guys gave me is quite a lot, it is not infinite. So I could practice and gain money at the same time and I would not have to waste time in a part-time job. It is taking down two birds with one shot in this regard. Obviously, I have to do it with moderation since I do not want someone calling the cops at my door thinking that I am selling stolen goods or whatever shit they could imagine. 

"A bookstore, huh" Even if there is still a year before the laws related to copyright get heavy, I would rather not risk having some criminal record for wanting to save some bucks. Besides, it's not like my economy will be at risk for buying a couple of books. 

Sure I do not strictly need to buy the books since I have Perfect Memory and there are public libraries as well as one in the school but…it will be interesting to find out if refining a book would also refine the knowledge inside of it, so I cannot use public property for that. 

Not to mention that I would like to buy some manga…even if my main objective is to get strong and get into college, people need rest. Besides since I am in a different world, maybe there are some manga that I haven't read before.

Entering the store, the smell of new books entered my nose ... In my previous life, I never was into books outside manga and light novels. But even I like this smell, and the enhanced senses make the experience something…new. 

I took one of the shopping baskets at the entrance and walked around the alleys finding something that would interest me. Material of the same grade would not be of much help since I can remember the things from my previous life and have the books of this school year at my house. 

Surprisingly this middle-sized store has a lot of books on diverse subjects, but since Kuoh University is near this place is somewhat understandable. I took many books on many subjects. Not that I want to hear everything, but everything is just at the level of "for dummies" in a way, just the introduction to the subjects so I can filter the bad information from the internet or at least smell if something is sus. And it would be interesting to see the process if the knowledge gets refined. 

There are some books about self-defense, and how to unlock psychic powers among other things. The thought of something of these "evolving" into something useful is hilarious as fuck but…I am in another world after spending an unknown amount of years in a purgatory-like dimension and getting rewarded with bullshit powers…so yeah nothing is impossible.

Now in the fiction alley, I could not help but look at the manga here just to get…."The fuck I am seeing." There was a manga that got my interest not because it was something that I never read, but on the contrary, it was too similar to something from the past …" Drag-So Ball?" 

The tome was unpacked, so I decided to take a peek at it, from the cover I can guess that it was around the Frieza Saga. With every passing second, I started flipping the pages faster and faster to the point that if I did not have the advanced control of Essence of Combat Prodigy I would have ripped the pages of the manga. I thought that I was prepared for the differences between worlds. But, this…this….THIS!

"It's like every nightmare I've ever had fused into one, cloned itself, fucked the clone, and then made THIS ABOMINATION!" I did not care about being loud as this thing was a crime for all Dragon Ball fans in the world. It's as if some fucker intentionally wanted to create the worst Fanfic on the multiverse the worst is that having perfect memory I will never be able of forgetting this….

"Excuse me, customer…" A weak shivering voice said from behind.

I turned around to see who was talking to me. The guy was a little bit smaller than me and looked about the same age as me. He seems to have a frail body and has straight mid mid-length black hair and blue eyes wearing the store uniform.

"Yes?" 

"S-sorry for interrupting you but you are making a lot of noise and could bother other customers…" The guy said weakly with his voice getting weaker every time he voiced another word.

"Oh, sorry mate." The poor guy looks as if he will have a heart attack at any moment…I wonder how he works in customer service with that personality. Well everybody needs money.

But after seeing what I had on my hands and a big smile on the clerk's face and his attitude made a 180. "First time reading Drag-So Ball, I see, I see. I was the same when I saw Heata's third transformation for the first time Hahaha." Instead of his previous cowardly voice, he sounded more…confident. 

"Yes…it was…shocking." Honestly even if for me it's like the worst abomination in the world, him being nice, would give a bad aftertaste as a fellow otaku. Not to mention if I talk like I usually do he will return to his chihuahua mode.

"Yes, indeed it was. But it is surprising that you haven't read it before." If this…thing is like the Dragon Ball from my world, iI also would be surprised if someone didn't know about it.

"I've been outside of the country for a long time and the place I was did not have anything like this and I just got here a couple of hours ago." Not untrue, there was nothing in that place. 

"Souka, but this volume is way far from the beginning, so I will recommend you to purchase the first volume or if you are interested maybe I can recommend something else!" He said with a big smile on his face.

'Bright!' Maybe he doesn't have many friends who are into anime so he got excited. 

"Maybe another time, I still need to buy some other books for school." Even if I am an ex-delinquent I am not a dick to sour his mood. 

And once again his mood made a 180. "Ah…that's right…" Damn! he became depressed so fast.

I do not need Hyper Intuition, to know that he is not happy about school. "Is there something wrong?"

"Ah…well..you..see. Since Primary School I used to go to an All-Boys school so I did not have much contact with girls of my age. So my parents were concerned about the fact that I am too shy around them so they decided to enroll me in a High School that used to be an all-girls school and since my grades weren't too bad I got accepted."

I see, he looks like a very shy guy, maybe that is why his parents decided to use a direct approach forcing him to interact with women to overcome his shyness, hell I wouldn't be surprised if they gave him the idea of working here...wait a damn minute. "Is that school, Kuoh Academy?" 

"Yes, why?"

"The world is sometimes smaller than one would think my friend."

"Friend? Wait, are you also going to be at Kuoh Academy?"

"Yup, I am also going to be a freshman next month, And well… sorry I've been out of the country for a while so I forgot that it's off bad manners to call someone you just met a friend, but it would be nice to have an acquiescence before the start of the school year." I scratched the back of my head at this. Is not that I forgot, that is literally impossible, but after who knows how long of being in that damn place, it became awkward to talk with other people. Besides 

"No, no, no it is not a problem." The boy sputtered. "None of my previous classmates enrolled in Kuoh Academy, so it would be comforting to know someone there." 

I smiled at the boy's reply. "Nice, the name is Gokudera Hayato by the way."

"I am Yamada Hanatarō, please take care of me," Yamada-san said, bowing a little bit. Well, it is indeed a small world, so much of a coincidence if I have to say.

The guy seemed to want to say something, but he was stopped by someone ironically screaming "Yamada! Stop lazing around and help me with the new shipment!" 

"Yes, boss!" Yamada-san said in a hurry. "Sorry, Gokudera-san, I have to go." 

"No problem pal, you are at work." I eased his worries. "See ya around Yamada-kun." 

He nodded his head at my words and left in a hurry to catch up, with the guy to seemed to be his boss. 

"Well, that was something." While I doubt that he was actually the person that I was thinking about since I did not sense any danger from him. But well…who knows what this world has to offer. "Huh… I forgot to ask for his contact info...Whatever I will meet him again eventually." 

….

After paying for the books I went to other stores to purchase other things, nothing big since the house where I am staying has all the necessities, but more things to work with, such as some samples of different metals with different sizes, even if I can take some from the abandoned places there are some materials that there are not there. 

Also, I bought some bokken with different types and different kinds of wood to see the differences after refinement. Some of them were more for decorative purposes than for practicality but that is part of the experiment. Also, I brought an old friend… baseball bat. 

So now I stopped at the park that was practically empty since it was a little bit late and was quite silent. I could have returned to my house by now since there was nothing else that I wanted to buy, but I wanted to enjoy being outside a little bit more before going back. 

*sights*

With my current body, just walking around the town and doing some shopping would not tire me at all. But since I've been without a flesh body for a long time, I am still getting used to it once again to have an actual body, but more than anything I think that the mental fatigue accumulated from a long time is finally reaching me. 

Back there, most of my thoughts were focused on just leaving that place…if it wasn't because of Ma, I do not doubt that I would have given up a long time ago…" Positive thoughts." Ma, hated it when I was sad. 

Letting the breeze of the wind take all those thoughts I started to think what to do next. 

….

Hello nieces and nephews, it's Uncle Author and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. 

So basically with this chapter, I wanted to introduce what he can do with the Essences. I mean I could just copy-paste the ones from the archive and remove some parts for either nerfing the Essence or as a "secret" from the Essence. 

But that would be pretty boring and lazy for me, so I tried to explain them in my way, but Jezz's Essence of Dying WIll was too long hahaha. Since it is a complete Essence…well for the most part. As my understanding of the Meta Essence if one drank that essence from the start could pull out things like Tsuna could at the end of the Varia Arc but I have to make the story interesting in some world business with how I want to play with this world and not just steamroll over everyone with too much ease.

Also, I want to know how many of you realized who Hanataro is. And for those who realize…what can I say? If you have read my previous works you know that I am a big Bleach fan hahaha but to make things clear it is not a crossover he will be the only character from that universe…well maybe one other but that is just a maybe. 

So in the next chapter, Hayato will begin his training with the Dying Will Flames.. With which of the Flames do you think he will start with? Leave a comment with your thoughts. 

Also, he was pretty lucky or unlucky depending on how you see things but ... .hehe the start of the school year will be interesting. Which one of the two heiresses do you think would be the first one to approach him? Btw he won't join any peerage so be at ease. I am not a Devil hater but…with the personalities of the characters I write, they would not like to be under anyone, each for different reasons. Yozora because it's something intrinsic about his very being and Hayato because of his resolve.

So with anything else to say, thank you for reading this chapter.

If you liked the first chapter please add it to your library so you can receive the notifications when a chapter is out. Also leave a comment, with your opinion about the chapter, it will help me a lot. Maybe a review but I won't be greedy since it's just the beginning hahaha

See you again, in the next chapter. 

Uncle out *drops the mic*