Chapter 56: Change.
Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Change.
(Personality thing is only for a short while)
[Edward POV]
As I was late getting out of bed today, dad walked into my room in his casual clothing to wake me up. He was wearing beige cargo pants and a white polo shirt instead of his usual captain's uniform, as I had forced him to take a day off today.
"Oh. You're awake." He said in a dazzled state as he saw I was doing pushups with my shirts off.
"299...300...301..."
My hands were shaking as I forcefully did the pushups; sweat was dripping on the hardwood floor, and my eyes almost lost focus.
"Wait. Edward. STOP!" Dad ran and slid on his knees to catch me before I fell to the floor.
With panting breaths, I said, "No... I can't stop... I need to bring my team to the Super Bowl... My body is too weak right now... Watashi Kara Hanarette (Get away from me.) "
"What the hell?!" Dad became anxious as I was rambling and was trying to shove him away to continue exercising. Alarmed, he slapped my face lightly to wake me up , "Edward. What are you talking about?"
"I need to do this... IN ORDER TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP-"
""Ed! Are you possessed?!" Dad held both sides of my head, gazed me directly in the eye and said, "You're Edward Newgate. You're my son! So wake up!"
My eyes regained focus, and I looked at my father, perplexed, "Dad. What are you doing?"
Then, the muscle pain from 3 hours of continuous and strenuous exercise assaulted my entire body. "ARGH...WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING?!
"Apparently... sleep exercising." Dad finally breathed a sigh of relief and released me from his arms. "Get up, You need to go to school."
"Ahhh. I don't want to." I said as I rolled around on the floor with muscle pains preventing me from getting up.
"No excuses." Dad smirked before he walked out of the door. I saw his face turn incredibly solemn as he turned his back towards me, but I kept my focus on the new memories inside my mind instead of him.
"That's why...Hiruma Yoichi...He's someone who was obsessed with football."
The reason I acted in such a way was because of the raw emotions inside the memory gacha. I received his memories for 2 years at that time, when he was training for the Japan Bowl.
For a few hours of my life, I had truly turned into Hiruma and my skinny body condition disgusted me.
"(sigh)... I need to take a shower. It feels a bit disgusting to have another man inside my body...No homo..."
I forced my leg to stand up and walked to the toilet door. As I was letting the water from the shower head rain on my body, I opened my eyes as I recalled the memories from before.
"Damn. I really don't think that eidetic memory could be used that way."
With my eidetic memory special ability, I managed to learn the Japanese language, all of Hiruma's strategies in a match, his devotion in training, body-building skills and diet requirements, cooking skills and recipes, and even methods to blackmail and take advantage of other people using mind games.
"I basically got a discipline talent from the memory gacha because of my eidetic memory."I muttered as I cleaned my hands and my body with soap.
However, I recognise the memory orb's limitations, in that I couldn't learn anything that wasn't related to his football training memories.
Otherwise, I could not only learn about Japanese student education, but also about Hiruma's personal life when he wasn't training to be the best quarterback.
I could no longer experience the memory fragment of Hiruma Yoichi as a memory gacha could only be used once before it disappeared. If I didn't keep my focus during my experience, I may not earn anything from the memory at all.
To experience other people's lives would also bring identity confusion into the user's life, therefore, some preparation should be done before opening the memory orb.
"Basically, the next time I should make a VHS tape of my life like in the movie 50 First Dates so that I can remember who I am after experiencing another person's life."
"The memories, obsession, passion, guilt, sadness, happiness... I experienced all of them. That's probably why the memory prize is the lowest-ranking prize available. The rewards were in their raw form and could affect someone's memory if used incorrectly."
After turning off the shower, I walked out of the toilet and got dressed for school.
"Fuck. I can't feel my arms." I cursed as I struggled to button up the white shirt I was wearing.
The sound of someone using a blender could be heard when I walked to the kitchen. Dad poured the green-looking sludge of horror into a tall glass before giving it to me.
"Drink this. It'll ease the muscle pain."
"What did you put in this?" I asked with a grimace as I smelled the sludge.
"Kale. Banana. Chicken breast. Various Nuts. Raw eggs."
Ted smirked as he saw my apprehension about drinking the protein shake. However, my frowning face suddenly turned into a determined one, and I chugged down all of the drink in only one shot. 'Hiruma drank worse things than this.' I thought.
With a satisfied exhale of breath and a green drink moustache on my lips, I said, "Thanks, dad."
"Are you going with Abby, or do you want me to drive you to school?" Dad asked after he was impressed that I didn't gag or puke after drinking the shake for the first time.
I looked at the clock on the wall and said, "Please send me. I want to rest a little bit before going."
I texted Abby that I would be going with my dad to school today while sitting on the couch and massaging my sore legs at the same time.
'Did I do squats too? How long did I exercise?'
The chime from my phone distracted me from my thoughts. I picked up my Apple phone and read the message before replying to it.
{Abby: Did you wake up late?
Edward: Yeah. I don't want to burden you and make you late too, so you just need to drive me back home afterward.
Abby: ...I have a life too you know?
Edward: What life? You barely even have friends.
Abby: Go die!}
"Ah. That raised my spirits. It's always nice teasing Abby." I muttered as I kept massaging my legs. "It seems that the effect of my massage skill is lessened when I do it to myself."
"Yup. Didn't you get a spa ticket for your birthday? You should use it later when you finish school." Dad said casually while walking behind me. Although he was unaware of my gacha skill, what he said was correct, as being massaged by another person and being massaged by yourself were two completely different things.
He opened the front door before he realised something. "Oh right." He turned back to grab the car key and said, "Can't go too far without these."
"Really?" I narrowed my eyes at him for his blatant attempt at making bad jokes.
"What?" Dad replied with an innocent face, but the corner of his mouth that was raising up betrayed him.
...
"Hey. Look at that kid. Isn't he the one who performed with Taylor?"
"Oh my god. He's so cute."
"He's just overrated. A bitch-ass little shit who thinks he's hot stuff."
As I walked along the hallways of the school with Elsa and Jacob, whispers followed me everywhere I went. People were pointing their fingers at me, singling me out of my group, trying to initiate conversation, and more than 10 girls had asked me out today, including multiple high school students.
"You want me to break your face?" Jacob growled at the pair of boys who spoke badly towards me.
"Eek!" The boys flinched and ran quickly after being threatened by Jacob.
"What are you doing?" I asked the kind giant who was looking out of character. "Are you showing off your masculinity now that you have a girlfriend?"
"Yeah. I asked him to do that. I think that's really hot." Elsa said before she grabbed Jacob's face and made out with him– using their tongues and running their hands all over each other's bodies right in the middle of the corridor.
" Get a room." I said it irritably because this wasn't the first time they'd acted this way.
Elsa and Jacob both blushed as they separated from each other.
"I want to do that too... But... My mom is always at home..." Jacob said in embarrassment.
"My house...is also out of the equation." Elsa said this while fanning her hot face.
With narrowed eyes, I said, "If you say you want to use my house, I will hit you both."
Both of them were taken aback by my accurate guess of what they were thinking. They froze on the spot while I continued walking to the class alone.
"Hey Ed." Alex greeted me as we bumped into each other on our path to our class. "Have you accepted Mrs. Henderson's goodwill yet?"
"Goodwill?" I asked in confusion.
"Not every teacher could give you a make-up test. So, it's her goodwill, isn't it? All you need to do is say 'Yes' to become an academic decathlon participant."
"Did she bribe you to convince me to enter?" I asked.
Alex flinched before returning to her poker face and saying, "No. I just think you'll make a good addition to the team-"
"Well, I don't." An Indian boy with clean-cut short hair and baggy clothes to hide his skinny frame abruptly interjected the conversation.
"Sanjay. This is not about you!" Alex warned him.
(In case you've forgotten who Sanjay is.)
"I'm on the team. I supposed to have a say in this." Sanjay behaved confrontationally as he faced off with me. Although he tried to act tough, his shaky voice betrayed his actions.
I couldn't even cross my arms as they were numb, so I gazed daggers at him and said menacingly, "What?"
He cowered back a few steps, but I guess as he wanted to impress Alex whom he has a crush on, Sanjay said, "Y-Y-You can't enter the academic team just like that. Do you know how hard we have worked to advance our school until we're finally ranked in the top 10 of the schools in the state, despite being in competition with private schools all around? I can't let you join the team as I'm confident you'll bring more harm than good."
"Sanjay. Mrs. Henderson asked him to join, so you don't have any say in it. Any complaints, take it with her."
"Alex. He's a singer. Singers are dumb. He will damage our record." Sanjay debated against Alex while completely ignoring me who was standing there.
"Really? So you think I'm dumb?" I chuckled a little as I was fed-up with the cocky behavior of the nerd.
"No offense, but for a guy who was always at the bottom of the class to suddenly be pulled into the academic decathlon team, I couldn't help but wonder if you'd seduced the teacher to pave your way into it. Again, no offense."
"No. I want to take offense." I said as I took a step towards Sanjay.He cowered in fear, and his paper tiger attitude crumbled immediately as he thought I was going to punch him.
"I-I-I Said NO OFFENSE!" He said this while quickly retreating a few steps back.
"That doesn't give you the right to say something offensive." I said as I continued to close the gap between us.
"OKAY STOP!" Alex gets in between us to stop a fight from happening. "What's with you?" She hushed me, unable to believe how hot-headed I was.To be honest, I just dislike the guy, even in the previous series.
I suddenly realised that I was acting like a delinquent, and I stopped what I was going to do. 'Damn, Hiruma's unpleasant personality had rubbed off on me.'
Inside my mind, there were already some plans to completely obliterate Sanjay's life or make him my lackey for the rest of his life using Hiruma's Blackbook skill.
I let out a sigh as I stood in front of Alex. I glared at Sanjay while calming down before I said, "I understand your doubt. However, there is nothing you can do about it. I guess you'll just have to wait till the competition to know my value."
"Wait. Are you joining?" Alex widened her eyes in surprise while Sanjay's jaw dropped.
"Yes. I'll go inform Mrs Henderson of the good news."I said and turned my back to Sanjay and walked away.
"I- I'll walk you to the classroom." Alex said in excitement while lightly jogging to walk beside me.
"H-H-HEY!" Sanjay called out from behind. I paused and looked coldly at him before saying, "Also Sanjay. I will surely tell Mrs. Henderson about your opinion, so don't feel too bad. She will greatly appreciate it when I tell her of your tough stance...word for word...without leaving anything behind."
"No..NO. You don't have to do that!" Sanjay gathered his strength to run towards me before Jacob suddenly stood in his path. "What do you want?" Jacob asked him.
Sanjay's eyes darted between Jacob and I before he decided to run away with tears in his eyes.
"Hey. You're not joining the team just to spite him aren't you? If you don't work hard for the competition, I will ask the teacher to kick you out too." Alex suddenly warned me after I finished talking with Mrs. Henderson.
I patted her head, making her flinch as she didn't expect that. "Don't worry. With me around, there isn't any doubt about us taking first place in the state competition."
"Let's aim for the top 3 in the district competition first." Alex retorted hurriedly while hiding the blush on her face with her hand.
"How long are you going to touch my head?" She said, pushing my hand away as I continued to pat her for nearly 30 seconds.
"As long as you're shorter than me." I replied playfully and tried to pat her again. The bell rang at this time, and lunch was finally over.
"Hmph!" Alex snorted before she huffed while walking to her next class.
"We're going to meet up for at least an hour a day to study for the decathlon. Text me your schedule, and I'll try to work up the time."
"Sure."
In the next class, Jenna sat next to me as usual. While ignoring the teacher who was rambling about his life story in front, I asked her, "Hey. The spa ticket stated that it could be used by up to four people. Is this true?"
Jenna replied with a shy smile, "Yes. It's true. Mom said it was a gift for a producer. But, he broke his promise, so she didn't give him the ticket."
"Ah...I see.." I said with my hands still at my sides, completely motionless. At this moment, I couldn't even bring my hand up to the table as I couldn't even sense them anymore.
"Jenna. Can you do me a favor?" I asked in desperation.
"What?" She replied with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Can you help me scratch my nose?" I said in a begging tone.
Jenna widened her eyes and said, "Really? You want me to do it?"
"Yeah. I can't move my arm because I over-exercised." I explained.
"Oh." She exclaimed flatly and then reached out her slender hand in front of my face before she helped me to scratch my nose.
"This feels weird." Jenna giggled as she continued scratching.
"That's it...a little bit more..."
"I heard that sound in my mom's room a lot." Jenna mumbled to herself as her face blushed red.
"What did you say?" I turned to her and asked.
"N-nothing. Enjoy the ticket. Mom said it's worth more than... Well, not that much." Jenna decided to keep the information to herself after thinking about it.
She was afraid that I would return the ticket to her if I knew the ticket cost her mom more than five thousand dollars, and that she had stolen it from her mom's drawer without her knowing about it.
After seeing her weird behavior, I only shrugged my shoulders, as the girl had been weird from the moment I met her. I couldn't care less about the classes today and only had a nice massage in my brain the entire time.
...
"Hey. Here's an idea. Why don't you guys join me in the spa?" I said as I moved my shoulder forward so that my noodle hand could grab the car door.
"What's wrong with your hand?" Haley asked in confusion while sitting at the back of the car.
"Spaghetti arm." Abby replied. "Also, I hate strangers touching my body."
"What's a spaghetti arm?" Haley asked.
"They have manicures. I think." I replied.
"He exercised too much, and now he has lost his arm function," Abby explained.
"HAHA. Spaghetti arm." Haley guffawed as Abby drove us away from the school. It was a 30-minute drive to get to the "spa," which was located at the edge of town.
"Wait. How much is the ticket again?" Haley asked in confusion as she the building The lone building gave off a luxurious vibe, but the security around it gave off an ominous one.
"250 dollars I think.." I muttered as I saw the sign on the building named Fantasia.
"Oh. Recommended by a VIP member. You can park your car in front of the entrance as you're our first VIP member today." The security guard changed his stoic expression to a friendly one in a matter of seconds after he saw our ticket.
"Thank you." Abby replied awkwardly as she pressed the gas pedal and parked the car smoothly.
Although the place was luxurious, it was still within my initial estimation as I saw it was an ordinary spa when we walked through the front door.
Asian ladies with a bucket of wax walking around. Some people were getting massages, and manicures.
"Isn't the vibe here kinda off?" Abby whispered to my ears as her detective instinct kicked in. The people there were eyeing us as if they were a starving predator, and I could sense it too.
"I guess," I said as I looked around the entrance to find the reception desk.
We were greeted by a European lady with fiery red hair, a pointed nose, and deep eyeshadow around her piercing blue eyes. She was wearing a satin-full suit outfit that covered both her hands and legs, and she looked more like the owner of the spa rather than a worker.
The only place where her skin could be seen was her head and her deep cleavage on her G-cup chest. Haley and Abby both covered my eyes with their hands at the same time as they caught me leering into the lady's bosom.
The lady with the name tag [Serefina] said, "Welcome. As per the rules of our establishment, customers have to turn off any mobile devices or any type of recording devices before entering to protect the other customer's privacy."
"Sure." We replied and followed the instructions obediently. Abby had to reach into my pocket as my hands were totally useless and helped me to shut down my Iphone.
"Please change into these robes. You can put your personal belongings in the locker provided. "
Although the rules were pretty weird, I only thought all of their rules were to protect the d customer's privacy. 'Maybe some VVIP's used this place.'
"May I ask what your fantasy is about coming here today?" The lady asked after we had finished changing into the robes.
"I don't need much. I just want someone to make me feel my arm again at the end of the session." I replied honestly while still staring at her chest.
The lady smiled seductively as if knowing what I wanted and said, "That could be arranged."
"I want to watch him scream while getting the massage. And a manicure." Abby said with some irritation as I kept leering on the sexy lady's body.
"Unfortunately the massages are a private session for those involved." Serafina said. Abby pouted and replied, "Okay. Put him next door to me then."
"I want my face to look better, so I'll book the facial." Haley replied while pointing at the asian massage section on the menu.
The lady then turned to Haley and said, "Unfortunately, we changed into an all female establishment a month ago."
"That's okay. I prefer women." Haley replied innocently without knowing what she was asking for. To be honest, all of us didn't know what we were asking for. We were just going with the flow.
"We'll start with the mister." The lady said while leading us towards a small room with a massage table in the middle.
"Please lay down over there and take off your robe." The lady said while opening the cabinet next to the massage table after I had separated from Abby and Haley.
Every high-end spa had a separate room to protect their customer's privacy therefore we were the only one there. I didn't even see another customer while we were walking to our room.
"We will start with a massage." Serefina said before she started kneading my arm. She abruptly grabbed my right hand and walked one foot over it, gently massaging my arm with her crotch.
"Is this a special technique?" I asked playfully while laying down motionlessly on the massage table while enduring the muscle pain.
"Yes. I'll show you a lot of new techniques today." She said with a seductive whisper as she batted her eyes at me. My teenage hormones reacted the normal way a man would when being seduced by an extremely sexy lady.
In the next communal room, Abby said with a whisper, "I'm telling you. Something feels weird in this place."
They were waiting for their own private session by the workers and were getting pampered before they would be massaged. They put green face cream on Haley and Abby's face while a few workers cleaned their hair and wrapped it in a towel.
The manicurists were also giving both Abby and Haley the best treatment possible, and they couldn't help but feel extremely relaxed while they were getting pampered.
In my room, the massage went on for half an hour before the lady said to me, "Raise your hand over your head."
"Okay." I replied with a flushed face and a half-mast underneath my boxer from her deeply intimate massage. Running her hand seductively up my thigh, whispering in my ears, and even lightly rubbing her body part on mine.
"This part will be a little bit intense." The lady said. Suddenly, I heard a clicking sound, and I found out that she had handcuffed both of my hands on the massage table.
"What the hell-" I widened my eyes.
The lady jumped on top of my half-mast and started dry humping me the moment my hands were restrained.
"The safe word is Catzilla." She smirked before she bent over and started licking my neck.