The Black Stars

The break had ended, so Hiroki had to return to his classroom.

"Alright, see you later, wolfie," said Kasumi with a smile before starting to leave along with her sister.

"Sure," replied Hiroki, stamping out his cigarette and also heading downstairs to his classroom.

Once inside, only the teacher was in the classroom, and as Hiroki passed by her, Shoko could smell the cigarette smoke.

"Hiroki, were you smoking?" asked Shoko with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, so what?" replied Hiroki indifferently.

"'Yeah, so what?' You're too young for that," scolded Shoko, to which Hiroki just sighed.

"I've only done it once," Hiroki said, dismissing it.

"Hiroki," said Shoko, looking at the blonde with a serious look.

"Fine, I won't do it... as often," Hiroki said, causing Shoko to sigh at his response.

"Oh, Hiroki, what am I going to do with you?" sighed Shoko as Hiroki shrugged.

The day continued normally until classes ended, starting the extra time for clubs.

"Maybe I should join a club, that'll distract me," said Hiroki, thinking about which club he could join.

Judo club sounded interesting, but the main problem was that Ayumu and that bastard were also there.

"Screw it, I'll go take a look," said Hiroki, starting to walk towards the Judo Club room.

After a short journey, he arrived at the room, opening the door to see two pretty women practicing inside.

"Uh? Who's he?" asked the pigtailed girl as she dodged the other girl's attack.

"I don't know, he must be a first or second year student" said the other girl as she blocked the kick from the pigtailed girl.

"What's your name?" asked the pigtailed girl, looking at Hiroki.

"Hiroki Mori. I was interested in the club, so I came to check it out" said Hiroki, looking at the two girls who nodded, stopping their fight.

"So you're interested in joining. Have you practiced any martial arts before?" asked the girl with black hair.

"Karate and boxing" replied Hiroki.

"Alright, if you want to join, we'll give you a little evaluation, and we'll let you know tomorrow if you're in" said the pigtailed girl.

"We haven't introduced ourselves yet. Nice to meet you, I'm Hana Sunomiya" said the pigtailed girl identified as Hana.

"I'm Shiki Nakamura" said Shiki, looking at Hiroki who nodded.

"Nice to meet you both. What does the test involve?" asked Hiroki.

"Nothing complicated, just some basic physical tests and a bit more" said Hana, looking at Hiroki who nodded, and then followed the two girls inside the classroom to take the tests.

Unbeknownst to them, Ayumu and Michael entered the Judo club for their daily practice but saw Hiroki with Hana and Shiki.

"Hiroki?" Ayumu asked in a low tone, feeling somewhat sad remembering what the blonde had said to her in the morning.

"What's the loser doing here?" asked Michael, raising an eyebrow and clicking his tongue.

"Alright, we'll start by measuring your strength" said Hana with a grip strength meter, which would measure how much gripping force Hiroki could exert.

"Alright, squeeze as hard as you can" said Shiki, handing the device to Hiroki who took a deep breath.

"(Alright, let's see how this goes)" thought Hiroki as he squeezed the device tightly.

The numbers quickly rose: first 40... 50... 60... 62.

"So, 62 kilograms of force. Not bad for a short guy like you" said Shiki, nodding approvingly as she recorded the score on a chart.

"Wow, my strength has improved" said Hiroki with a satisfied smile at seeing his result. While he wanted to reach over 100 kg of force, 62 was a good start.

"Alright, your next test will be flexibility. You'll need to touch your toes without bending your knees" said Hana, looking at Hiroki who nodded.

Sitting on the floor, Hiroki reached his toes without bending his knees, showing himself to be quite flexible.

"Alright, looks like you have good flexibility" Hana continued, jotting down on her chart.

"What's next?" asked Hiroki as Hana guided him to another part of the room.

"Your next test will be a 100-meter sprint, and we'll time you" said Shiki, taking out a stopwatch from her pocket.

"Alright, you'll start from here and run to where Shiki is, understood?" said Hana to Hiroki who nodded. "Alright, 1... 2... 3!!" she gave him the signal.

Hiroki sprinted off at full speed, reaching Shiki who stopped the stopwatch.

"How was it?" asked Hana, approaching Shiki who had slightly widened eyes in surprise.

"13 seconds..." Shiki noted at the stopwatch, still impressed by the time.

"Wow, you're pretty fast" said Hana, surprised at the time. On average, people covered 100 meters in 20 seconds or more.

"I didn't even know I could be this fast" said Hiroki, surprised by his own time.

In the distance, Michael and Ayumu were astonished by the time rather than Hiroki.

'I didn't know Hiroki-kun was so fast??!!' thought Ayumu, surprised.

'Tsk, how the hell is that loser so fast?' thought Michael, furrowing his brow.

"What's next?" Hiroki said, sweating a bit from accelerating so quickly in just a few seconds.

"The last test is... get into position," said Shiki, getting into a combat stance.

'Huh?? What is this crazy girl talking about?' thought Hana as she saw her friend challenge Hiroki, who didn't hesitate to get into a fighting stance.

"So, a fight" murmured Hiroki, cautiously watching Shiki who was looking serious.

'They're going to beat the shit out of this loser like always' Michael thought mockingly, as Hiroki was going to fight with Shiki, the strongest member of the entire Judo Club.

Without waiting any longer, both of them launched into combat. Shiki made watery and perfect attacks, while Hiroki's were rougher and faster.

"Come on, show me what you've got" said Shiki, encouraging Hiroki to push harder, which worked because Hiroki became faster with his punches, almost hitting Shiki if it hadn't been for her blocks.

But Hiroki left an opening in his stand, an opening that Shiki seized, delivering a powerful blow to his stomach.

Ayumu grimaced in pain at the sight of such power against the blonde. On the other hand, Michael was already about to mock him, saying he was a weakling, but everyone was surprised to see that Hiroki withstood the blow.

"Uh?" Shiki was surprised to feel a slight pain in her fist, which was slightly red from the impact, but she had to quickly dodge a punch from Hiroki.

'What the hell!!?? It was like hitting a wall!!!??' she thought surprised. Hiroki had tensed his muscles as much as he could, allowing him to withstand the blow.

"How is that possible? That blow would have knocked me down" said Michael still astonished.

During practice, Michael had tried to flirt with Shiki but only received a powerful blow that almost knocked him out. But this dwarf was almost as if nothing happened.

"Shall we continue?" asked Hiroki, looking up, but Shiki was surprised to see Hiroki's eyes.

'Stars??!!' thought Shiki, noticing the strange Black Stars in Hiroki's eyes.

But instead of scaring her, it only excited her more. Something told her these stars would be interesting. "Sure, Hoshi-kun" she said with a smile as she attacked Hiroki again. "We're just getting started."

"Hoshi-kun?" wondered Hiroki about the new weird name, but he brushed it off, attacking Shiki again.

This time, his attacks were abnormally fast and powerful, causing small gusts of wind.

'Did he suddenly become stronger?' thought Shiki as she dodged Hiroki's swift attacks, feeling the wind from his punches and hearing the sound of their speed.

The others were astonished to see the fight gradually escalating, noticing that both fighters were beginning to smile with excitement.

Shiki launched a high kick towards Hiroki's head, who ducked slightly to avoid it. But quickly, Shiki threw another kick towards Hiroki's face, and from his position, it was impossible to dodge it.

"I knew he didn't stand a chance, that fucking loser is gonna get beaten down" Michael said mockingly, but he fell silent and shocked, along with the others, as they saw Hiroki dodged the kick by bending all the way down to the floor, demonstrating abnormal flexibility. Then, with a swift move, he put Shiki in a lock that immobilized her.

"Wow, you really surprised me" said Shiki, freeing herself from the lock and extending her hand to Hiroki to help him up. Hiroki took Shiki's hand and stood up.

"That was an impressive fight" said Hana smiling, surprised, but then widened her eyes at seeing the Black Stars shining in Hiroki's eyes.

"What the hell is with your eyes?" she asked, shocked.

"My eyes?" He didn't get it, confused by Hana's statement. What Hiroki said made Hana go to her backpack in search of her mirror.

"Look at yourself" said Hana, handing the mirror to him.

"What's wrong with my ey... what the hell!!??" he said in surprise upon seeing the Black Stars in his eyes.

"I want to test something. Do the strength test again" said Shiki, handing the machine to Hiroki.

"Okay..."

Squeezing the machine with all his strength. The numbers quickly started increasing... 40... 50... 60... 70... 80... 90... 100... 110... 120... 250.

"Holy fuck, 250!!!" shouted Shiki and Hana in one go, seeing the number Hiroki had reached.

Hiroki was utterly surprised, wondering why his strength had suddenly increased so enormously.

Hearing what the two girls had said, Ayumu and Michael were in shock. Hiroki had achieved 250 kilograms of force.

"This isn't possible" said Michael, shocked but above all filled with anger and jealousy at knowing Hiroki possessed such beastly strength.

"You know what, to hell with protocol, welcome to the club" said Shiki with a smile.

"Great" said Hiroki, as the Black Stars faded from his eyes. Instantly, Hiroki felt his muscles relax and his heart rate return to normal.

"Oh! It seems to be temporary" Hana shouted, noticing the stars in his eyes disappearing.

"I wonder what they are..." said Shiki, very interested.

"Well, I need to go home" said Hiroki to Hana and Shiki, who nodded. They also needed to leave as it was already starting to get late.