"Ugh..." Ryu groaned, the sun had risen and the light had directly struck him in the face, he rolled over to the other side.
"I don't wanna get up..." He murmured, but still dragged his body up, sat on the bed and rubbed his face.
He was still very exhausted, yesterday he pushed past his biological limits and truly stepped into the world of the Supernatural.
"Good thing it's a Saturday..." He muttered and picked up his phone.
'Friday' it said.
He also had some missed calls, from Sona.
"Good thing it's a Saturday..." He repeated and got up, heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth etc. etc.
"I'm gonna skip school today... I don't have the energy to go." He said, while drying his face with a towel.
He then went into the kitchen, grabbed a pan and fried himself some eggs, like 6 of them.
"It's gonna be a long day today." He said.
He then went back to his bedroom to get his phone, and called Sona back.
It rung a few times before she picked up.
"Good morning, you called?" You could tell how tired and out of energy he was just from his voice alone.
"Yes, why aren't you at school?" Sona asked.
"Too exhausted, ask Rias for answers please." Ryu said.
"...Alright, get well soon."
"See you later."
Ryu hung up the phone, and then he went to the living room, laid down on the sofa and turned on the TV.
Meanwhile, in Kuoh Academy.
Issei was sitting in class, feeling very dejected his head lied on the table.
"What's gotten into you bro?" His classmate, a decently tall bald boy with pretty big ears asked him.
"Nothing..." Issei said with a sigh.
"No, something is definitely up with you, I mean... you didn't even come with us to peek on the Kendo Club!" Motoha, another friend of Issei, said.
"I guess I'm not really feeling like it." Issei finally straightening up in his seat and stretching.
He then took a look around, the girls were giving him and his friends dirty looks, and whispering about them and Asia was speaking to Kiryu, another classmate of his.
Now hang on for a second.
Issei's brain activated.
Asia is speaking to... Akira Kiryuu?!
Issei shot up from his desk and instantly rushed to Asia's side.
"Asia please keep your distance from this... thing." Issei put an arm around her as if shielding her.
"'Thing'? is that how you talk about your classmates?" Akira crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"No, only to you. I don't want you tainting Asia's purity."
"Says who?"
"Says me."
"Hypocrite."
"It's alright Issei! Kiryuu was just asking about Ryu!" Asia said with a smile.
And the class went dead silent, everyone was watching their interaction.
"Yeah, that's right I saw you two walking with him the other day."
"Ryu? Now, what would you want with him?" Issei turned his attention back to her.
"Well, he's handsome, buff, cool, etc. Oh and he's big, like really big, and I don't mean his physique." Akira said with a dreamy look on her face.
Kiryuu Akira was a girl who could very accurately, and at a single glance, figure out a guy's size. Somehow.
"Okay, you're done." Issei said and turned Asia around and pushed her away, he then stopped. "By the way, Ryu already has his eyes on someone just letting you know."
"Thank you for the heads up, but I'll still try." Kiryuu said with a smile.
After their conversation was done, Akira was surrounded by other girls from her class, all asking about Ryu.
It was pretty funny, the girls who normally give dirty looks to Issei and his friends for their perverted tendencies were now discussing about another man's private parts and physique.
"And they call us perverts..." Motohama muttered to himself, shaking his head.
Just then, their classroom door opened.
And there stood Kiba, another celebrity at school.
"Hello Issei, Asia." Kiba greeted them, "After school we're meeting at the club, we're going to Ryu's house to bother him."
"We're in." Issei agreed.
"Sure!" Asia as well.
.
.
.
.
.
Ryu's house.
Ryu was sitting on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling, not moving at all.
He was bored out of his mind.
And then, the people who he called friends, the people who would save him from boredom came.
There was a knock at his door, Ryu groggily got up from the sofa and went over to the door.
He opened it, and there were his friends.
"Hello Ryu! We've come to bother you!" Rias said with a smile.
"Come on in." a smile crawled up on Ryu's face as well, as he let his friends in.
They all sat down in the living room, there was one large sofa, two couches and a table in the middle. Ryu went to the kitchen and brought out some snacks and juice
Ryu sat on the sofa, Akeno sat next to him, that didn't escape Rias's eyes, the smirk on her face said it all. Akeno blushed slightly and looked away.
"So? How're you feeling?" Issei asked, "After all, you did get kicked around by that Gorilla..."
"Yes, it was... quite brutal." Kiba winced remembering it.
"Is there any pain? Do you need my help?" Asia offered, a worried look on her face.
"I'm just exhausted, there's no pain, thank you for offering Asia. I should be good to go tomorrow." Ryu answered.
"What exactly happened yesterday?" Koneko asked bluntly. "One second you were getting tossed around, and in the next you were standing like an immovable wall."
Ryu glanced over, "Ah, right." He rubbed his face.
"Admittedly, I'm curious about that too." Akeno said.
"Well, the familiar master guy explained it pretty well, I just broke through my biological limit, specifically the limit of Endurance. Oh, and I call that Threshold, so it would be the Threshold of Endurance."
Rias thought about what he said for a second, "I don't think I've ever heard of humans being capable of that..."
"Of course, I've only ever met one other guy who did what I did." Ryu said.
"Can you explain it in more detail please?" Rias asked.
"Sure, to achieve Mastery, first and foremost, you gotta be a human."
"Why? Is it something like a taboo? One that says you can't teach it to Devils or Fallen angels?" Issei asked, his face totally serious.
"You've got quite the imagination don't you?"
"Am I wrong?"
"Yeah, it's because supernatural beings like Devils, Fallen Angels, Yokai, Etc. don't have a biological limit, they can grow strong infinitely, however that growth slows down as they grow stronger, but it doesn't stop. A 0.000001% of growth is still growth."
Ryu paused to catch his breath.
"Humans have something like a 'Hard Limit'. For example, when a human reaches a certain level of strength in one aspect, he hits a limit when he can't EVER grow past it, and once you break that limit, you achieve what I call a Threshold."
"How come we've never heard of this 'Threshold' before?" Kiba asked.
"It's rather simple, humans who are often in the supernatural world, have advantages for exorcists it's an aptitude for Holy Magic, for Magicians it's a large container for Mana and Brain capacity for mathematical equations and stuff to pull of their Magic, and of course, there are Holy Sword wielders and Sacred Gear users. All these advantages help them grow, these things 'Disable' those limits and give the otherwise weak race called humans, a chance to grow and rival others. Oh, I forgot about Senjutsu, most humans use that to strengthen themselves as well."
Koneko twitched slightly at the mention of Senjutsu.
Ryu paused an then continued. "But what if you take all those away, and take a human being who only has his body? And no talent for anything else?"
"He'll hit his limit and his growth will stop..." Surprisingly Asia answered this time.
"Exactly."
"Still doesn't answer why we've never heard of it." Rias said, very interested in it.
"Because it was just a theory until yesterday. A theory me and my uncle came up with, and now... it's been proven, humans CAN indeed grow strong." Ryu said with a smile.
It was silent for a while, and then Ryu continued speaking. "The second step of achieving mastery is hitting that hard limit, and the final step, is breaking through it. The best way to do both is fighting someone who is a lot stronger than you, and training here and there, and that's about it."
"Damn... who the hell is this person that's a lot stronger than you?" Issei asked.
"The Gorilla for one, even though he was kind of slow, the Strength behind those strikes was damn terrifying and it was exactly what I needed to try to break through that Threshold."
"Wait a moment." Koneko suddenly spoke.
"What is it?" Ryu asked.
"You only mentioned Endurance, how many more Thresholds are there?" She asked.
"Nice catch, in theory there are three more, Strength, Speed, Technique, though that last one is a bit iffy."
"I get the first two, but what's Technique supposed to do?" Issei asked.
"I don't know, we'll see when I get there."
"By the way... I'm asking this just to be sure but, you could have dodged those strikes from that Gorilla... couldn't you? Cause as you said they were quite slow..." Akeno asked, turning to face Ryu.
Ryu looked away, "...Yeah."
The temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees, a cold sweat formed on Ryu's forehead.
"...Idiot." Issei said.
"Reckless Idiot." Koneko added.
"Muscle brained fool." Rias included that too.
"...Ouch."
"Give him a break guys, it worked so that's that." Kiba intervened.
"Thanks for the save Kiba."
"Anyways..." Ryu looked around, avoiding meeting anyone in the eye, "Is there anything that could spark my interest happening?"
Rias let out a sigh, and then paused for a moment, "...No, nothing interesting as of yet."
Akeno looked towards her, she looked quite worried about... something.
Ryu raised an eyebrow at their interaction, noticing that something was definitely up, but since the two didn't want to talk about it, he'd leave it alone.
"Oh! I almost forgot, what familiars did you two get?" Ryu asked Asia and Issei.
"I got a Sprite Dragon! His name's Rassei!" Asia answered with a big and a bright smile.
"...thing." Issei muttered.
"What was that Issei?"
"I didn't make a contract." He said and hid his face, a bit shy.
"That's rough buddy, I wouldn't worry too much about it though." Ryu leaned back in the sofa, "It's kind of sad that no familiar liked you though..." He muttered, while holding in a chuckle.
"I heard that."
"Cool."
Ryu then got up, and went to get the remote for the TV that was hanging on the wall.
"Does anybody want to watch a movie or something?" Ryu asked, turning towards his friends.
Everyone except Akeno all exchanged glances, and nodded as if coming to an understanding of sorts.
"I'll pass, I have to study." Issei answered, getting up.
"You never study..." Ryu muttered, looking at him strangely.
"I'll go with Issei to help him." Asia said also getting up.
"I have to visit a contractor." Koneko answered.
"Same here." Kiba also
These three were believable.
"I'm expecting guests today, my niece should be coming over." Rias said.
"Say hi to him from me." He then turned towards Akeno, "What about you Akeno?"
Akeno glanced up at him, before she noticed Rias from the corner of her eye winking at her and smirking widely.
"Sure, I'll stay and watch some with you." Akeno agreed.
"Awesome, I'll get us some snacks."
"Bye you two, don't stay up too late." Rias winked at them.
After they left, Ryu turned on the TV put on some action movies and sat next to Akeno.
The two had a lot of fun, they watched about 3 movies, it was pretty late and exhaustion caught up to both of them.
And the both fell asleep on the couch, they tossed and turned to find a comfortable position for a bit, and well...
Ryu lay on his back and on his chest was Akeno.
That's that.