Training and First Day of School
"Eh? Piano lessons?" my mom asked with a confused voice, her eyes glancing at me through the rear view mirror. But her eyes went to Shouko who was also looking in her direction, and a loving smile broke out on her face, "I wonder what your motivations are, Yu-kun~" she teased, a rare case of mirth being in her eyes.
Feeling a bit of heat on my face, I just shrugged, "Anything to make her life more enjoyable," I said this in a low, yet firm tone.
The happy smile on mom's face only got wider at my answer, "Fine then, but you better stick to it. I'm sure your sister will be very proud~" again she teased, yet this time I just smiled. My family meant a lot to me, so it was only normal that their opinion of me mattered just as much as well. Making my sister proud, or my mom for that matter, was the best thing I could do. That or gain strength, honestly.
Shouko, not being able to follow the conversation, put her board in front of my face, [What are you two talking about? Is mommy okay?] her hazel eyes were full of worry and I had to resist the urge to ruffle her hair for being so darn cute.
Shaking my head, I smiled and signed my reply, "Mom's fine, Shouko-neesan. We were just talking about me taking Piano lessons," I finished, and Shouko's eyes widened before she starting rapidly started writing down something new on her board.
[Piano lessons?! I thought you were taking martial art lessons? Yu-kun, are you sure you won't wear yourself out?] her worry was back again but for a different reason this time, and this time I could hold it back as I ruffled her hair, causing her to pout and go a bit red. Yet she didn't pull away from my hand and instead subtly pushed her head up into my hand.
"I'll be fine," I signed, "I can handle both of them. I need to be the perfect little brother so I don't show you up, Shouko-neesan," I winked, playfully joking with her, and her red face got a bit redder and she just settled in and hugged my arm, not asking anymore questions.
Yet I did see the very last thing she wrote on her board.
[You're already the perfect little brother!]
That put a wide smile on my face.
. . .
"Again!" a rough voice shouted and I complied, thrusting my spear hand into a bundle of bamboo.
*Crack...*
I felt a few minor cracks run throughout my fingers, but I still pulled my hand from within the bundled bamboo that had been specially treated and had now turned black, with a slightly metallic appearance.
"Again!"
*Crack...!*
Once again, I complied, and thrust the opposite hand into the bundle of metal-like bamboo. The cracks from the last strike from this hand had miraculously already started healing, yet this strike made the cracks spread further. A pained expression came over my face, yet I still pulled my hand free, the bamboo cutting the skin.
"Consecutive strikes! Five per hand!" the voice roared again, and despite the pain I knew this action would mean, I still did it without hesitation.
Hesitation had no place in a fight.
*Crack...!*
One for my right hand.
*Crack...!*
One for my left hand.
*Crack...!*
Two for my right hand.
...This carried on until I'd done 5 with both hand. The end result was my fingers were slightly wonky, and the skin over the fingers and hands was completely cut up, with a moderate amount of blood pouring from the cuts, dripping to the ground.
"Good job, Yu," the rough voice came over, putting a coarse hand on my shoulder, patting it, the amazement was clear in his voice as he continued, "To think that after a year you could make so much progress...Usually it takes between 5 to 10 years to get up to the Iron Bamboo level, yet you did it in a single year. That training speed is absurd - Good thing you're my student!" he let out a hearty laugh as he slapped me on the back.
The man with the rough voice was Doppo, my teacher. He'd currently been teaching me his personal style of Karate over the past year, and I'd be advancing at a terrifying speed. According to him, at least. For me, it still wasn't quick enough.
"If you say so, Doppo-sensei," I said in a nonchalant way before looking down at my hands which had been slightly wrecked from the half an hour of thrusting at the bamboo, and then looking back up at Doppo, "I'm gonna go to Akisame-sensei and Kureha-sensei so I can get my fingers set so they can heal right before coming back, okay Sensei?" I asked but I didn't wait and simply walked off in the direction of the medical room for the Dojo.
Over the past year my strength had skyrocketed, but the biggest gain I'd gotten would have to be the increase in technique. The well of experience Doppo had when it came to both fighting and teaching people, made him the perfect person to learn from. This expertise was the main reason I could advance so swiftly in terms of technique - the man who was teaching me made everything seem so simple.
That, plus my natural talent, and I was improving much quicker than I was on my own.
I'd also discovered a lot about my body. The main thing being that my body adapted to stimuli quite quickly. It also continued to heal quicker and quicker after every little bit of damage I sustained. This was also a sort of adaption from my body. This adaption was also why my physical training was so fast.
But I'd also found that my physical advantages wouldn't keep my ahead if I didn't put in the required training.
Even with muscles and bones denser than normal, there were still people with stronger bodies out there. Akisame being one of them. He'd converted all the muscle in his body into Pink Muscle and trained it to perfection, and even with my muscles which are 52 times denser than normal...I can barely take the guy on.
Why is this so? Because his muscles are more efficient and trained. A person who makes their muscles 52 times stronger and more efficient, is more than a match for me, let alone someone like Akisame or Yujiro who have trained their muscles far beyond that point.
But what my dense muscles do give me, is an advantage. My potential, being that advantage.
Think of it like this; every human has 100 points that they can put into their muscular strength, but they can only ever put that many points into it, they can never go past 100 points in strength. But someone like me, who was born with muscles 52 times denser than the norm, can put many more points into my muscles because they're made of superior materials and can be pushed further. Every muscle cell in my body is worth 52 regular muscles cells...you tell me, which muscle cell is superior?
The answer; mine are superior.
The moral of the story, is that my potential is higher than other peoples. Much higher. But potential and talent are only that; they have to be converted into power, which takes time.
Finally, I arrived in the medical room. Knocking on the door to alert them to my arrival, I winced at the pain and quickly entered the room. Upon entering, I saw that Kensei Ma was in the room alongside Kureha and Akisame.
"Ah, Yu, I suppose you're here because of Doppo's spear hand training again?" Akisame said with a slightly fed-up voice. Not at me, but rather Doppo who made me destroy my hands every time we did spear hand training. Though I wouldn't have it any other way as it added to my strength in multiple ways.
Nodding, I walked forward and held up my hands with a straight face. Seeing my hands, Kureha rolled his eyes before coming over to me and getting on with setting the bone.
As he was doing that, I looked in the tall mirror in front of me and took in my appearance. Taller than other kids my age, and with very defined muscles, densely packed together, yet still lean and athletic. I had brown hair and piercing red eyes, and my skin was tanned from all the training I'd done outside. This, put together with the good-looks I'd inherited from my mom, and I gave off an exotic air. I looked pretty handsome, honestly. Kind of like a future lady killer, or that's how Kensei put it anyway.
The only drawback were the fierce features I'd gained from Yujiro. The sharp eyebrows, the messy and wild hair, the sharp jawline and nose...I guess I look roguishly handsome? Or something like that, at least...
Anyway, before long my bones were set and beginning to rapidly heal. Within a few minutes my bones had healed and connected back together, stronger and harder than before. Kureha gave a whistle before shaking his head with a smile, "I'll never get over your ability to heal, Yu...it's completely amazing."
Akisame and Kensei both nodded their heads in the background. Half-way through the year, Kensei had joined in on my physical training and had been using his Chinese Medicine to develop my internal organs, as well as my external body (muscles, bones, etc). The results were pretty good and alongside Kureha and Akisame's training and methods, it helped my strength grow quite quickly.
"Anyway, I'm off. Doppo-sensei and I still have some more training to do before I've got to go home," waving at them, I exited the clinic before jogging back to the training ground where I saw a massive bowl of metallic-looking sand.
Iron sand...
Taking a deep breath I walked into the courtyard where I'd no doubt be injuring my hands once again in a short time.
. . .
I was 6-years-old, and do you know what that means?
I have to start going to school. Elementary school, to be exact. I was okay with this, because I'd get to spend some time with my sister doing lunch breaks, and I could also make sure she was fine and that no one picked on her because of her disability.
It wasn't like Elementary school was gonna be hard or troublesome, was it? I'd already done this stuff before and I'd done a shit load of studying whenever I could, my mind just absorbing the information I didn't already know like a sponge.
So why...
"Hello! My names Karla Kure! Don't mind my weird eyes, and lets be friends!" an overly joyful girl I knew all too well, practically shouted this as she smiled a bright smile at our classmates as she introduced herself during a class icebreaker lesson.
Karla Kure. Over the past year I'd seen her a lot and we'd become friends. Her and Miu kept in touch all the time, and whenever she could, Karla came to Ryozanpaku to spend time with Miu and me. Naturally, because she was my friend, I cared for her...but the problem was...she was a bit troublesome to deal with. Or rather, troublesome situations seemed to follow her wherever she went.
The next person to introduce themselves was a bundle of nervous energy. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, with her blonde hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. Her fringe was held in place with a few clips.
"Hello...my names Miu Furinji," she paused, nervously swallowing before continuing with an innocent yet nervous smile, "Please look after me!" she said before bowing.
Miu Furinji. Like Karla, over the past year, I'd became really good friend with the innocent blonde. She was nice, gentle, caring, and a brilliant sparring partner. In fact, I'd even say I was better friends with Miu, than I was with Karla. She was like a sister to me.
But when she was with Karla she got dragged into so many stupid schemes that just imagining the years ahead of me in Elementary school...just imagining it gave me a massive migraine.
Next was my turn to introduce myself.
"My name's Yukiro Nishimiya, let's get along," I bowed, keeping my words short and concise before sitting back down. Could those duo of people get even worse? What kind of schemes would be thought up by Karla and then blindly followed by Miu?
The next person stood up and said their introduction, "Saeko Busujima," before sitting down again.
But that short introduction made my head pound, and I looked to my left and wondered how I didn't notice this girl.
Straight and shiny thigh-length straight purple hair that has a triangular fringe at the front...blue eyes...and the most showing thing...a bokken in a bag...This girl is THE Saeko Busujima from Highschool of The Dead...
I need to learn to keep my mouth shut...
My head collapsed into my arms which were leaning on the desk. I could only hope she would kick it off with Karla and Miu. But as the teacher let us get up and have a bit of a chat with one another, Karla and Miu went straight for Saeko.
...Jesus Christ.