BXBX NOVEL Chapter 170 - 170 Recruiting
So Michael was now stuck with the very first problem in creating his new club which was finding members for the club he wanted to create. It was not helping that the subject of the occult was a very niche thing in a world filled with martial artists.
‘Even finding one person to join my club is turning out to be a problem. What should I do... Who to ask for help... That guy is useless for this kind of thing.’
‘Michael! You do know that I can read your thoughts? Also, I know that guy you’re talking about is me. Even if I don’t have my complete knowledge as of now, but, you need to know that I still understand what you’re going through. The best thing you can do now is to inform everyone that your making an occult club, as long as you advertise it in the entire school surely someone would like to join. Seeing as you have little to no friends this is the best course of action you can take.’
When Michael heard what the Spirit said he frowned and felt like his heart was stabbed, but following a short pause Michael sighed. After thinking for so long he wasn’t even able to come up with such a simple solution.
“Alright then let’s make a poster.”
...
The following day Michael finished making a poster and placed it on all of the bulletin boards both on the martial arts side and the general studies side. It was a huge poster that took up most of the space on the bulletin board, now all Michael can do was wait in the designated area in the library to see if some people would come.
During lunchtime, Michael waited for a bit and the first person finally arrived. A rather thin young man with his hair dyed silver his right arm wrapped with bandages, and wearing red contact lenses suddenly came in front of Michael.
.....
“I have come fellow seeker of the truth.” The young man announced with a look of excitement on his face.
“Umm so are you interested in joining the occult club?”
“Of course I am! I Richard Dracul Ryanburn Von Hartmann am willing to become thy confrère.” Richard spoke while doing a knightly salute.
“Umm, so is Richard Dracul Ryanburn Von Hartmann your real name, ’cause I need to write it on your club application form.”
“O mine confrère, Richard Dracul Ryanburn Von Hartmann is my true name from mine very own past life memories, but if you wish to hear my name in this world then it’s Oliver Williams.”
“Oh okay then, so are you from the Martial Arts course or the General Studies course?” Michael wanted to hand over the application form to Oliver but he wasn’t sure if the other party would write properly, he might accidentally write the so called past life’s memories.
“first year of General Studies.”
“Thank you for joining the occult club. Well, it hasn’t been established yet but I hope we get enough members to join us.”
“Of course, we shall succeed mine confrère. Destiny is on our side.”
...
Now Michael has someone else to wait with him and the other party was quite talkative which made the waiting less boring.
“So mine confrère why did you suddenly want to create such a club, did the call of destiny echo into thy very soul?”
“Nothing like that, I just really wanted to learn more about the occult. How about you Oliver-san, why did you want to join?”
“O’ mine confrère that heeded the call of destiny, there’s no need for you to call me by that name or even address with san, you should call me Richard. When I saw your poster I heard the call of destiny same as you. In this world filled with martial arts, people have forgotten the blessing of the world and the power that it gives. This power is the very thing I need to regain my power from my previous life, the power that I had as a hero.”
When Michael heard Oliver’s impassioned speech he communicated with the Spirit to ask a question.
‘Is this guy telling the truth or is he just delusional?’
‘I don’t know if he has memories of a previous life or not or if he’s delusional but I do sense mana in him... I can’t believe it... After staying in this place for hundreds of years, not seeing any person with mana for all those years but now there are more than three in the same place.’
Michael showed a shocked expression when he learned that Oliver truly had mana, and now he was even more confused if whether Oliver was truly telling the truth or not.
“O’ mine confrère where you so shocked to hear of my former glory? Yes, it is true in my previous life I was a hero.” As he spoke Oliver made a dramatic pose. “Back then I saved the world by finding the holy sword and slaying the demon lord. Even now after I reincarnated I remember those days and even without my former power I still retain the cursed flames of my right arm. It is a good thing that I was able to acquire this holy cloth that was once owned by a Saint to suppress the curse on my right arm. If the cursed flames were somehow released without my power at its peak to suppress it, this world would’ve burned.”
Michael looked at the bandaged right arm and asked the Spirit if there was anything special about it. The Spirit replied that there was nothing, it was just a normal bandage and there was no such thing as a cursed flame being sealed.
‘This guy might just be a lucky person who got the ability to absorb the mana of the world.’
...
While waiting Oliver continued to tell his epic tale of how he once saved the world. After waiting for a while another person came. The newcomer was a rather muscular individual even those that focused on the physique in the martial arts course couldn’t compare to the person standing in front of Michael and Oliver.
“Is this the place where the occult club is gathering?”
“Yes, this is the place, do you want to join?”
The muscular guy looked at Michael and Oliver for a few seconds and sighed.
“I was expecting to see some experts but you two don’t look the part. How are you going to fight ghosts with those weak muscles.”
“Fight ghosts?” Michael couldn’t help but ask.
“Of course, fighting ghosts what else would the occult club do? Still, now I can see that you guys aren’t that serious. Everyone knows if you really want to fight ghosts you need more muscle mass, so it’s better if you two start working out more, especially you skinny guy.” The muscular man pointed at Oliver.
“Hoh, you think that I can’t defeat some measly ghosts without large muscles like yours? Heh, you underestimate me, demons and ghosts are all the same to me I know dozens of ways to defeat them even without your so called muscles.”
Oliver suddenly made a pose as he pointed at the muscular man, in response the muscular man also did a body-building pose. It was like the two sides were burning as they confronted each other.
“It seems I underestimated you guys, you really are serious. Alright, I am Hasegawa Tsukasa first year in General Studies and I would like to join your club.”
“It would seem that we have gained another confrère.”
Oliver and Tsukasa grabbed each other hands in a manly handshake. While the two were doing that Michael was looking at the muscular Tsukasa with his eyes wide open. Michael did not expect that this intimidating-looking guy was not only a freshman but he was also a General Studies student, not someone from the Martial Arts Course.
...
“I apologize for my rude behavior before.” Tsukusa bowed his head.
“It’s alright... Um, can I ask why you want to join the occult club?” Oliver waved his hands and then Michael asked Tsukasa a question to get rid of the awkward atmosphere.
“Didn’t I already answer that? I wanted to join the occult club to fight ghosts.”
“Oh yeah you did mention that, and you also said to fight ghosts you need large muscles. Why do you think you need muscles to fight ghosts.” Michael was finally able to ask the question he wanted to ask since a while ago.
“Huh, because having strong muscles is the first step to fighting ghosts, didn’t you know that Michael-san? My uncle is a professional ghost hunter and he told me that if I wanted to join him one day, I first need to build up muscles like him. My Uncle told me that ghosts, monsters, or anything supernatural have a natural fear of physical bodies so the larger the physical body the scarier it is for them. Once afraid it’s easier to finish them off.”
Hearing what Tatsuya said Michael did not know how to retort, so he could only nod his head and smile.
...
After Tsukasa, lunchtime ended and the trio met again after school but the day ended with no one else coming to join, but at least Michael had two new members he only needed two more to start the club. Even though the two he recruited were a bit on the weird side, they were good and interesting people. So after exchanging contact information the group went to a nearby family restaurant to discuss how to recruit more members.