4 Survival

As I renewed my resolve I stood, my knees shaking, and took in my surroundings. I took a deep and long breath, held it in for several seconds and then exhaled slowly. It was almost euphoric, my first taste of air in thousands of years. I staggered slightly. There would be plenty of time later to enjoy the simple things.

Right now I had to go through all the knowledge of my host In order to contemplate my next move, but before any of that comes survival. It was clear from my memories this body gave up everything It had to get into The Volti empires military, and didn't really try to get up after falling.

The memories flashed through my mind. After forcing himself through the strenuous training, he had passed out in front of the second battalions commander, being deemed unfit to serve he was kicked out of the city itself as it had no use for useless people when they had a war to fight. The Volti empire was located on the Island of Janico and was, everyday for half the day, covered in shadow due to being directly beside the red line.

The Island of Janico was an Autumn Island and had beautiful, massive trees with leaves that were on the verge of falling year round. Most trees maintained an almost perfect balance of fallen and nearly fallen leaves. That coupled with the near constant rain fall caused the Island to, while the sun shined, reflect a beautiful cacophony of colours that made the entire Island seem coated in flames.

It was enough to cause me, who has seen supernovas up-close, to pause and gape at the beauty and wonder before me. *GGUUURRRGGGGGLLLLLLL*

Though my stomach seemed not to care. I fell to one knee, unable to hold myself up do to loss of concentration and lack of strength. 'Cough, cough' I whipped the small amount of blood from my cracking lips and began to look around for signs of food.

Due to this being an Autumn Island there weren't many fruits or berries to choose from, however it had an abundance of nuts. As long as one knows where to look one should never go hungry. Seems my vessel had no idea that just beneath some of these leaves are the very thing that could have saved his life. To be so close to salvation and yet so far. I guess surviving in the cities has dulled your senses to nature. I payed a silent prayer to Ansarash hoping that my vessel's soul has a pleasant journey and safe travels.

I couldn't help but marvel at the failure that was my vessel, even before I died I knew that nuts could be found easier in the Autumn and this dude lived on a freaking Autumn Island. I mean I get that he kind of just gave up after failing to get into the reserves, but that's no reason to ignore common sense. Seems he was more interested in getting stronger in order to survive. And look where that got him.

Sigh... thinking about why my vessel didn't try to save himself won't get me anywhere, I may have the memories of his experiences but I don't know what he was thinking before he died.

Forcing myself up again took more will than I expected, but after moving towards the nearest tree I began to forage for any kind of acorn or nut I could find. After picking up a few stones and some bugs, which were fairly delicious, I finally found what I was looking for. After moving tree to tree and spending hours looking for and cracking open nuts, I was finally full. I could see a few larger than average squirrels in the trees that were clearly not happy with me taking their food, but they didn't seem to bother me and once I stopped they went back to their own foraging.

Nuts are high in both protein and fat, so they are fairly decent food for a starving person. I gathered a fair amount more than I could eat in one sitting, so I took the rest and removing my shirt, wrapped them in it. I then snapped a fallen branch into making a fairly decent walking stick, with a sharp end should I need it, and tied the shirt in a way so as to hang off the stick when slung over my shoulder.

Gathering water was easy, there was plenty of small ponds around and plenty to gather from wet leaves. If the fish weren't so small I would have gone in for more than just a dip.

Enjoying the cool breeze on my skin I began to make my way to the small town on the outskirts of the Volti Empire. It was a run down, garbage dump of a town. A place where bandits and criminals roamed freely. Where shootings, stabbings and fights happened almost daily. It was the place my vessel avoided at all costs and the perfect place to make my start. It would take about a days walk to get their and I was in no rush.

It would give me time to get used to having a body again.

I started by stretching, moving and contorting my body to the fullest extent of its potential. After spending a few decades at a temple for yogi's I learned quite a bit about yoga as well as meditation. My muscles ached when I finished the last pose of Yogi master Pathik's unique forms, but once done I understood exactly what my limits where. In fact I wasn't expecting much, but I was still surprised. At least according to earths standards I would be at the level of a typical professional athlete. I guess the one piece world really does have higher basic standards if this guy was at the bottom of the barrel during basic training.

After eating the rest of my nut stash I sat down, crossed my legs and began to meditate. I once met a Guru in India who had such control of his body that when he ate, he could get 3-5 times the amount of nutrition a normal person could. He did this so he could prolong his fasting periods and was one of the most respected Guru's of his time. After observing him for years I found that his secret lay In the mastery of the abdominal muscles, meditation and in a unique breathing method. These all came together with his strong stomach to accomplish what he could.

Mimicking the great Guru I took two small breaths in before exhaling slowly and finally taking a massive breath and holding it before exhaling sharply. I continued this form of breathing as I shifted my stomach muscles in accordance with the Guru's teachings. Of course my level of control is far from the Guru's, but my soul being as strong as it is made controlling my body perfectly fairly easy.

I could feel the energy in my stomach, like a warmth growing from within and spreading to every fibre of my being. After an hour I opened my eyes and started working on my physical body. My mind was strong but my body still weak. And I would need beyond perfect control if I wanted to make a name for myself in this place.