Hell Begins

Alfred led Ian in silence down a hallway within the detention centre. This unnerved Ian since Alfred wasn't exactly the silent type. If he was being silent then Ian suspects that he must be mad at him for what he did.

"You know I had no choice, right? They beat Jake up really bad," Ian said, trying to appeal for approval using Jake.

"I know you and you are not the kind of guy who would put himself at risk for anyone," Alfred replied without looking back. "You had your reasons for fighting those guys."

Ian scratched his head as he realized that he had been caught in his lie. "Well....."

"I really don't care about your reasons for what you did," Alfred interrupted before he could say anything as the hallway opened up to a big, expansive white space.

"Finally, a different colour," Ian thought with relief. "All of that blue was beginning to raise my anxiety level."

"What matters to me," Alfred continued. "Is the fact that you only have barely three weeks left before the raid which is now compulsory and you aren't even a little prepared for it. This punishment just made it worse. Couldn't whatever it was, wait until after the raid?"

Ian stayed silent, refusing to answer that.

"Fine," Alfred sighed. "I was able to pull some strings. You can't be released but I'm allowed to come here to train you every day until the day of the raid."

Ian's heart dropped as he heard that. He had harboured some hope when he saw his teacher who was apparently a hotshot in the school. He hoped he had used his authority to release him so he could try to find an instant level-up, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

"I thought you'd be more elated to know that you can still train," Alfred said, watching him sceptically. "That face definitely isn't the reaction I expected. A face of disappointment."

"I-It's nothing," Ian replied immediately as he controlled himself. "It's not his fault," he thought to himself. "I was the one who messed up."

"I'm happy I get to train," he smiled at Alfred who nodded in approval.

"Good," Alfred said. "Now, get down and start doing your pushups until I want you to stop."

"What?" Ian asked in confusion. "I did my workout this morning."

Alfred smirked. "You're a prisoner now. I'm gonna have to train you like one."

"What?!"

"Unlike when you were free, you don't have anything else to do except live in that blue room of yours. We are gonna be spending all of that free time training," Alfred explained. "I'll take care of your diet and your injuries, and I'll also make sure that you get the required hours of rest."

"Don't I have a choice?" Ian asked, trying to negotiate for better treatment.

Alfred put his hand on his chin. "Prisoners don't usually have choices."

"I'm not a prisoner."

"You are locked up so I'm pretty sure you are."

"But I'm not," Ian insisted.

"Don't you want to become strong?" Alfred asked with a serious tone as he looked down at Ian. "I thought that was the whole reason why you came here."

Ian paused for a moment as the words hit him. "I do."

"Then why don't you wanna work for it?" Alfred asked. "You have to be able to do this much if you ever want to stand on equal footing with the others in your generation ever in your life.

Your generation has produced some of the strongest ability users so they've got a huge headstart compared to you. All you have is good combat sense. Don't you want to make that gift of yours something for them to be scared off?"

"I'll work for it!" Ian stated as he took off his shirt and got down on his hands to begin his pushups. "I'll work harder than everyone else and get better."

The usual system notification didn't pop up to give him a quest this time. It seems like the system wasn't going to reward him for this extra training session.

"What am I thinking?" he thought as he continued his workout. "Hoping for the system to reward me for working towards my goal? That's bullshit! I'll become strong even if there's nothing or no one to help me!"

Alfred grinned as he saw the boy's determination.

"You'll quickly tire yourself out if you keep doing push-ups at that speed," he commented as he also got his hands and started doing push-ups.

"Look at me," he said and Ian stopped to look at his teacher as he did his pushups slowly and fluidly. His back was well aligned and symmetrical and his pushups weren't erratic like Ian's, instead, they were controlled and deliberate, making it look a lot cooler to Ian.

"That's how you do a pushup," he said as he stood up. "You'll keep doing pushups until you can attain that form and control. Now get to it."

Ian immediately got down, trying his best to replicate his teacher's control which proved to be harder than he thought. His arms were giving out before he could do twenty of Alfred's kind of push-ups and he still hadn't gotten it perfectly.

"You have a long way to go," Alfred sighed as he laid on the floor watching Ian. "This is the basic aspect of being a combatant that many people ignore these days.

In a way, I could say that you are lucky that you don't have any ability. That has given you the opportunity to take your physicality seriously, unlike a lot of the ability users like you. These guys only realize that having a strong ability doesn't mean having a strong body when it's too late. You might not be stronger than most ability users, but with good physicality, you could always annoy them enough to create an opportunity to take them down."

Ian collapsed from exhaustion as his hands could not support his weight anymore. That was already the third time he had collapsed.

"This is only the beginning," Alfred said with a bored expression. "You would also have to work on your legs and everything else."

"Why are you helping me?" Ian asked as he panted. "I know I've asked this before but I just can't make sense of it. You don't have to do this."

"Hmmm," Alfred rubbed his chin. "I don't like being questioned but I guess it's because I was once like you. I wouldn't elaborate on that but I want you to know that I went through hell to get where I am now. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

He grinned sinisterly at that. "I'm taking you down to hell also!"