Parasyte System

Once inside Jay's room, Sarah put Jay on his bed, after casting a cleaning spell on him, of course.

"Why does he train so hard?...He knows that he can't become a pugilist..." Wondered Sarah, sitting at the side of the bed.

Sarah was surprised that Jay was trying so hard to improve his physical condition since he hadn't shown much interest in it before, although it's not as if she disliked it, he was changing for the better after all.

"Oh well, I guess I'll just ask him later~" She said, coming to a conclusion, "Hmm, in the meantime...I'll cook something, he'll probably be hungry after exercising for so long...besides I'm a little hungry too, hehe."

After that, Sarah went down to the kitchen, put on some music and started to prepare a simple dish of pasta, which was quite easy, as the only preparation she needed was to take out her wand.

For her, cooking had almost nothing to do with manual labor, since she did everything with magic.

She stood in the middle of the kitchen and started imitating an orchestra conductor, making the ingredients on the shelves and the vegetables in the fridge float out to the kitchen island.

After having gathered all the ingredients on the island, Sarah continued with her imitation, waving her wand in the air, taking out several kitchen utensils along with some bowls and pots.

Although it might seem like chaos, in reality all the utensils were moving with precision due to the great control Sarah had over her magic, making all the movement in the kitchen really look like a very well coordinated concert.

That way...Sarah had started her little "concert" in the kitchen.

***

Half an hour had passed and Jay finally woke up, with his energy replenished, although his muscles were still aching a bit.

"Haaa, what a good nap, I feel like new." he said, quickly rising from his bed as he stretched and looked around.

After seeing that he wasn't in the backyard, he wondered who might have carried him to his bed and quickly came to a conclusion, although it's not like there were many candidates in the first place.

Seeing that he was still half-naked, he decided that he might as well take advantage of that fact to take a bath, so he took a change of clothes and went to the bathroom.

"Nothing like a shower after a good exercise~" he said as he washed himself.

After about 10 minutes, he got out of the shower and started posing in front of the mirror to see how much had his body changed.

'...I can see the results already but... doesn't it usually take longer...?' Thought Jay, looking at his somewhat toned body in the mirror, 'Oh well, let's check my status and see how I'm doing.'

"Open status."

_____________________

[Status]

Strength: (E)

Agility: (E+)

Endurance: (E)

_____________________

Jay had discovered this "function" while exercising today, because being upside down was a little boring, he started trying different ways to open the system, and this was one of them.

"I've managed to increase Strength and Endurance to (E) rank, but Agility is still the same...I guess it will take me longer to improve that." He said before putting on the clothes he had brought and leaving the bathroom.

Just as he was coming out of the bathroom, he was assaulted by a delicious aroma that directly attacked his nose and already hungry stomach.

*Grr*

"...Gee, it smells really good, so it's Sarah, eh." Said Jay before quickly going down to the second floor and heading to the kitchen.

The first thing he saw when he arrived was Sarah eating an unusually large plate of what appeared to be pasta with a type of sauce he vaguely recognized.

"Oh, Jay, you finally woke up~" She said as she watched him enter as she waved with one hand and continued to put more pasta in her mouth with the other.

"Hey Sarah, I see you cooked something...and that you're eating it too...please tell me there's still some left, I'm starving~" He said, moving towards the nearest pot in hopes of finding food, however, when he opened the lid of the pot...there was nothing!

"AHHH, WHY, WHY DO YOU LEAVE THE POT ON THE TABLE IF IT'S EMPTY?" Shouted Jay, hugging the pot with a tear in the corner of his eye as he turned his back to Sarah. "Poor pasta, you only lived for a few minutes..."

"Ahahahah, sorry, sorry, but don't worry, I did save you a plate." Sarah said while taking out a plate of pasta that was still steaming from a small leather bag on her waist.

It seems that in order to make Jay believe that she ate it all, she even went to the extent of putting the plate of pasta inside her little dimensional bag...

"...You are cruel anyway..." Jay said as he sat down at the table and grabbed the plate of pasta that Sarah had taken out.

"Phew, it was pretty good, my compliments to the chef." Sarah had enjoyed the food quite a bit even though she had prepared it herself, plus Jay's reaction had been fun to watch.

"Oh right, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be preparing for the Eitsirc Academy entrance exam, or did you decide to go somewhere else?" Jay asked.

Although Jay's question might seem to come out of nowhere, it actually made sense.

After all, the vast majority of high school supers graduates that wanted to keep developing their skills, such as Sarah and James, had to prepare hard for the entrance exam if they wanted to enter Eitsirc Academy, unless they decided to choose another place to study...although it was quite unlikely.

Giving Jay a look of disbelief, Sarah replied, "Of course I'm preparing, I know how hard the exam is!"

Judging by the look of sincerity on Sarah's face when she answered, it was clear she was telling the truth.

Sarah then looked away from Jay, "I only came because I saw that you were working out like a maniac since morning, so like the good friend I am, I came to help you when you collapsed in your backyard."

"Anyway, why do you exercise so much? Do you want to imitate Atlas' story or something?" Sarah asked with a expression of curiosity on her face as she leaned on the table.

"Of course not."

Although Atlas's story said that he had broken his limits through pure hard work and determination, deadly fights and practicing training methods where the slightest mistake could cost him his life, that was obviously something much easier to say than to do, after all not even today's pugilists dared to follow such intense training because of how difficult and dangerous it was.

Countless prominent pugilists who thought they could reach the same level as Atlas by following his training tried, only to get themselves killed, thus leaving a clear warning to all other pugilists, if even for them it was so deadly, then there was no need to mention what would happen to a normal person like Jay.

"Then why~?"

"I exercise because there's nothing else to do until the entrance exam." Jay replied without stopping eating.

Sarah let out a "Huh?", surprised by Jay's answer.

"Oh, I didn't told you, right? That I'm applying to the Eitsirc Academy too."

Apparently Jay had dropped a mini-bomb that hit Sarah.

"Y-you're applying too?!" Sarah shouted, standing up.

This time Sarah was really surprised, after all, Jay was someone who didn't belong to any of the three classes, meaning that he wasn't a super, yet he said he was going to take the entrance exam that even she who was a skilled magician wasn't totally sure she could pass.

"Yes, I just said it." Jay replied casually.

"B-but it's a test for Supers!"

Supers was a term used to group anyone who belonged to any of the three classes, Pugilists, Mages or Espers.

"I know, but hey, it doesn't say that normal people can't apply."

"Because normal people know they will die if they do!"

Although the Eitsirc Academy was incredibly famous, causing countless supers from all over the world to come and apply, sometimes causing several of them not to even have the opportunity to participate in the exam due to the limited number of vacancies, they had a policy of letting normal people participate as well if they wanted to.

That was thanks to some rules set by the main founders of the academy.

Of course, that didn't take away from the fact that Sarah was right, the exam was dangerous even for supers, so even though normal people could participate in it, they never did for obvious reasons.

"Don't worry, I've got the part of the written exam figured out." Jay answered with a smile on his face.

"What I'm worried about is the physical part!" Shouted Sarah looking directly into Jay's eyes, "This is no joke, Jay, you could really die..."

Unlike Sarah's worried attitude, Jay just calmly said, "I have a plan~"

"...Alright...please listen to me, I know you probably have one, but what if you fail... we're talking about your life here..."

Finishing his meal, Jay got up from the table before making eye contact with Sarah and saying with the brightest smile he could give, "When has a plan of mine failed~?"