Chapter Two

The first day of Setsuka's training regiment, morning time

Outside a park of a certain city, we see a young woman wearing a blue track suit warming up her body before she started her training regiment. After finishing her warm ups, the young woman began to do some push-ups to start her day of training. However, soon after she completed ten reps, the joints in her arms began to make popping sounds with every push-up she did.

'Damn, my joints are killing me!!!! I really thought I would be able to do more than twenty push-ups before I started to feel any pain.' she thought to herself as she continued to push through the pain that her joints were going through at the moment.

The moment the young woman completed her reps for the day, she collapsed on the grassy floor where she was doing her pushups all while she let out heavy breathes due to all the effort that she had exerted. A few minutes after she made rested her body, she then took on the next posture for her next exercise so that she could proceed to the next part of her personal training regiment, 100 squats.

And while she was doing the squats, she started to feel the joints of her legs make popping sounds with every squat she made after being able to do twenty squats without feeling any of her leg joints popping.

'Again?! I'm only able to do 10 squats before I feel pain?! Man this sucks.' she complained to herself , clearly not enjoying the way the muscles in her joints were aching from all the work that she was putting them through.

Being barely able to finish doing the number of squats that she had imposed on herself in order to finish the second phase of her training regiment, the young woman promptly got on her knees so that she could catch her breath once again.

After she was done with that part of her regiment, the young woman proceeded to start running around the park by following the path that would enable her to run for ten kilometers, which she had planned for before hand.

As she ran, it felt like all the muscles throughout her entire body were shouting at her to stop exerting herself so much. But despite all the pain that she was feeling, the young woman kept pushing herself to cover the ten kilometers that were required for her to finish the final phase of her training regiment.

'Gotta keep going!!!! I can do this!!!!' she motivated herself as she kept pushing herself forward, despite all the pain that her body was going through.

And more than half an hour later, she had ran the whole 10 kilometers. The moment she completed the final part of her training regiment, she made her way to the pasturous area of the park before collapsing on the ground while facing the sky above her.

'Man, *huff, huff* this is exhausting!' the young woman thought to herself from where she lay on the ground.

And as she was catching her breath, the young woman began to regret pushing her body as far as she did.

'What was I thinking doing all this work when I've never exercised this much in my entire life?!' the young woman dejectedly thought to herself.

'No!!!! I can't just quit from the start! The pain I'm feeling right now is something that I expected to happen!' the woman reprimanded herself before she could wallow in her negative thoughts any longer.

'I'm going to come out on top no matter what! And if I quit now, I'm never going to be able to be the type of hero I want to be!' the black-haired woman thought to herself as she stood up from where she had lied down.

'But that's enough for today, I'll just have to keep at it till I'm able to effortlessly do all of the exercises of the regiment!' the young woman affirmed to herself as she began to head towards her home for the day.

City Z, A few hours after the 90th day of training

Within the more densely populated area of the city where customers and shop owners were going about their day exchanging cash for various items and other services, a young woman with shoulder-length black hair was leisurely walking around with a large smile on her face.

'Yes! I was able to do more push-ups, sit-ups and squats without feeling any pain on my joints today, even if it was only ten more reps for each exercise. But I still need to improve my pacing when it comes to the ten kilometer run. Oh well, I'll just have to keep pushing myself.' she reflected back to her progress in the training regiment that she was undergoing.

'Man, I really haven't been able to find a weak monster to try and gain some combat experience against monsters without putting myself in more danger than I can manage. At least I was able to save a few people from getting into a few accidents. And I also stopped a couple of robberies from taking place at the smaller shops that I frequent, so I can't consider my efforts to becoming a hero as a complete loss.' she thought to herself as she walked towards one of the stores she planned on visiting today.

'Oh, and I was able to recently find a part-time job as a delivery girl, so I should have some money to spend for my basic needs for now. But I still need to find another source of income so that I can make enough money to pay for the rent.' the young woman pondered to herself as she continued to walk around this side of the city.

The young woman, along with the other people on this side of the city had also believed that this would be another peaceful day.

*Shatter!*

Until of course, a monster suddenly appeared out of one of the windows of a laundry shop that was present within this side of the city. People started to panic and run for their lives the moment they noticed the monster.

The monster in question could pass for a human dressing up as a mummy with an a variety of clothing wrapped around almost every part of its body. But upon a closer look, anyone would be able to come to the conclusion that the ragged pieces of clothing wrapped around most of its body looked to be stitched to the skin of the monster. It also had a paper bag which was also stitched to its face, with two holes that revealed a pair of blue eyes. The monster also had the build of the average human male.

"I am the Rag Zombie! I am the culmination of all the dirty clothing of the world given life! Prepare to feed me with your clothing, for that is all I wish to eat! And I shall not stop until I have absorbed all the types of clothing that this world has to offer! Mwahahaha!!!!" the monster declared to the citizens in the area, while it laughed like a madman.

It then proceeded to grab the arm of a man of short stature who happened to be wearing a fancy suit, lifted him up in the air, then landed a mean punch to the poor man's face.

As soon as he knocked out the human in its hand, he then grabbed onto the collar of his victim's clothing and began to absorb the entire suit through its arms. Within a matter of seconds, the man was left with only his underwear, shoes and socks.

After the monster finished absorbing most of the poor man's clothing, the monster dropped his first victim to the ground as though it were dropping yesterday's trash.

"Yes! I feel the power flowing into me! But I need more clothing to gain more power!" Rag Zombie yelled out, with a look of hunger in his eyes. He also got a little bit stronger as a result of absorbing all the clothing covering the man, seeing as his muscles had slightly increased after absorbing the man's suit.

As the other people in the area continued to run away from the monster, the young woman with the shoulder-length hair, who was wearing a blue tracksuit today, began to approach the monster with a confident smirk on her face.

'This is my chance to see if I can defeat a monster all on my own. It doesn't appear to be much tougher than the average thug, so it should be fine if I fight this monster right now.' she reasoned to herself, even if she was starting to feel a little nervous due to the fact that she was her first time fighting against a monster.

"Oh Ho? Do you think you can defeat me, silly human?!" Rag Zombie said, with a booming voice, a little offended that a human would dare to walk toward him without a hint of fear on her face, not noticing the small beads of sweat that were pouring down the side of her forehead due to her nervousness.

"Why of course I think I can beat you! Why else do you think I'm approaching you?" she boldly asked her opponent as she continued to make her way towards him all while maintaining her smirk.

When she was within the monster's range, he suddenly threw a punch towards her face with the intention of knocking her out in a single blow.

But unluckily for Rag Zombie, the young hero-in-training was able to quickly avoid the punch that the monster had sent towards her before it was able to hit her face. And immediately after she dodged the punch that was intended for her, she attempted to land her own punch against the monster.

Unfortunately for her, Rag Zombie was easily able to see her attack coming. And as a result of her attack being easy for him to predict, he was able to counter her attempt at a punch by twisting himself like a cloth that was being wrangled.

'What the-' the young woman though to herself, before she was hit by a fist that hit her square in the nose.

The hit he had landed managed to send her flying through the window of an arcade room not too far from where she was standing from, having landed at the center of the pool table.

'Ow!!!! I think he just broke my nose! I really wasn't expecting him to be able to punch me so hard just now.' she thought to herself, feeling a bit of blood starting to run down her nose while she slowly stood up on her two feet.

The monster then suddenly appeared right in front of her. But the moment he saw her, he was left in a state of mild shock, seeing as his attack failed to knockout the young woman.

'Oh, so you're still awake after that attack huh? Well, color me impressed! I really thought I knocked you out with that punch. But since you're a bit tougher than the average human, I think I'll toy around with you for a little while before I knock you out for good and absorb your tracksuit." Rag Zombie said to the heroine-in-training with an evil glint in his blue eyes.

She then proceeded to grab a ball from the pool table and threw it straight at the monster's face, so that she could disorient the monster with the damage it would take to the head from her throw.

Unfortunately for her, the monster simply dodged to the side and avoided the ball completely.

"Do you think you can catch me off guard with such an action, foolish human? I am a being capable of doing many things that humans could only wish they could achieve! As you can see, I am able to absorb any type of clothing and grow stronger with each piece of clothing I absorb." Rag Zombie boasted with his eyes glowing brighter as he said these words.

"Well, if you ask me, that sounds like a lame ability to have for a monster. Something only a pervert would want to have." was the response that Rag Zombie got from his opponent, with said opponent looking at him with a bland expression on her face.

The monster began to feel his anger towards his current target slightly increase for daring to think that his powers were nothing special in the slightest.

'Gotcha!' the young woman simply said the moment she saw that his body began to tremble ever so slightly after she had insulted the monster.

"Man, you really must be a weak monster if your best punch can only break my nose. And I bet that most of the people that were running away from you were only doing so only because of your weird powers. Face it man, you are a lame monster through and through. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" the self-proclaimed young heroine added to her previous comment while laughing at him as if he were a nobody.

"YOU WOULD DARE INSULT ME TO MY FACE LIKE THAT PUNY HUMAN?! LISTEN TO ME, YOU PIECE OF TRASH! YOU WILL REGRET INSULTING MY CAPABILITIES AS A MONSTER! I'LL MAKE SURE THAT TODAY WILL BE THE LAST DAY OF YOUR MEANINGLESS LIFE!! IN FACT, I'LL EVEN MAKE A BRACELET OUT OF YOUR TEETH AS A RESULT OF YOUR INSULT TOWARDS ME!!!! RAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!" the monster shouted out in anger at the insults to his strength as a monster that were thrown at him by the woman in front of him.

He then proceeded to lunge towards her direction, hoping to tackle her to the ground so that he would be able to strangle her to death before absorbing her clothing with his abilities. But as the monster was approaching her, the young woman did not hesitate to act for a second, adjusted her fighting stance so that she could throw a kick to the monster's face.

Since the monster had his arms stretched out in front of him during his lunge towards her, this had led to an opening for an attack to land on his head. And our young heroine-in-training did not hesitate to make the best of this opening by immediately throwing a kick straight towards his face.

*Pop!*

A sound no different from when a piece of paper gets poked was heard as soon as the kick of the young heroine-in-training landed straight at the monster's face. Her foot could be seen coming out from the other side of Rag Zombie's face due to her kick hitting its mark.

The monster then promptly went limp within a few seconds.

'Man, it sure was easy to get this monster riled up. I'm glad that I was able to deal the killing blow before things escalated. But my back is really hurting right now.' the young heroine-in-training thought to herself.

"Whew, I guess his head was his weak point huh? It definitely didn't feel like I was hitting a skull of a living thing when I kicked it just now." she concludes to herself, looking at the dead body of the monster she had been fighting just now.

As she looked at her surroundings in more detail, she saw the damage done to the area of the arcade room where her fight had taken place. While a lot of the arcade room was still intact, the pool table that she had landed on earlier had broken down, and the window at the entrance of the arcade room had been completely shattered.

Seeing this, sweat began pouring all over her body.

'Crap! I gotta get out of here before the owner of this arcade room shows up! I can't afford to pay for any of the damage caused due to the fight just now!' she internally panicked before proceeding to flee from the scene where her battle took place in as quickly as she could.

And with this fight, the young woman finally gained some fighting experience against a monster ever since she began her journey to become a hero.

Around the arcade room located in City Z, a few minutes after Rag Zombie's death

A brown haired man looking to be in his early 50s who was wearing brown khaki pants, white business shirt, and a square rimmed glasses was observing the damage done to the arcade store with a look of great displeasure on his face.

"Why did a monster have to fight inside my store of all places? Couldn't it have at least just fought outside? *Sigh*, At least the Hero Association will be repairing all the damage done to the arcade room." the owner of the arcade room grumbled to himself as he watched the damaged arcade room.

'But if there had been any more damage brought to my arcade room, I would be hunting down the one that fought the monster to the ends of the Earth and make their life a living hell!!!' he angrily thought in his head.

A few meters further away form the arcade room in City Z

"Achoo!!!!" sneezed the young woman who had defeated the Rag Zombie.

"Huh? I don't feel cold at all, so why did I sneeze just now?" the young heroine asked herself in confusion, wondering why she had suddenly started to sneeze on such a sunny day.