Training

The sky started to light up.

Daybreak arose and Akashi was heading down to where Kaneki told him to go. Akashi had already had breakfast at the mess hall. There were at least eighty other people there, but some had their host around them, serving them. It was uncomfortable seeing that people were getting served like they were part of a royal meal.

He arrived at the hall and looked for a sign that had "Training room D" on it. He found it and went in.

"Excuse me."

"Ah, so you finally got here."

Kaneki was in loose-fitting clothing, so was Akashi. Kaneki never specified why he needed to wear these and looked at him questionably.

"You must be wondering why I had asked you to change into loose-fitting clothes, correct?"

"Well... it's certainly a bit lose..."

"Well, that's to help you with your movement for today's lesson."

"Movement?"

The moment he had said that Kaneki vanished in a blink and he felt a tap on his shoulder and Akashi stumbled forward as he turned around to see Kaneki standing there.

"Movement will help you out on the battlefield a great deal as you have the element of agility on your side to easily evade your enemy's attacks."

"So that is what we are working on today?"

"Yes, but I will also be working on your personality."

"What's wrong with my personality?"

"There's nothing wrong about it, it's just that you need to be less forgiving and less trusting in others. You always need to have your guard up just in case the person you trust back-stabs you, just like that girl Ellie."

It had dawned on him that he had been betrayed, but he didn't want to accept that fact. Now he had to and nodded at Kaneki. Kaneki started to teach him how to move on the battlefield, how to predict the next move of the enemy, how to erase his presence, how to use bonafide techniques to move from place to place, and moving silently. Kaneki also worked on his personality, which took a while, but he finally gave in and started to change, all the while practicing his movement with and without a knife in hand.

***

As the days turned into weeks, weeks turned into a month, months turning into two months. Kaneki acknowledged that Akashi finally reached the level of a normal combatant. He's not at an outstanding level and nowhere near Kaneki's level. Akashi was still open-minded about others' opinions, but Kaneki couldn't change much of his personality. These were quite considerable changes, but he still needed to work on his knife skills and improve his strength. He had arisen this concern with Kaneki, but he had dismissed that concern as he said that it would solve itself when he got into the challenges. All there was left to teach was how to attack, defend, and deceive with a knife. Kaneki would have taught him how to use a sword, but he is restricted from using the one he chose. As such, he must know techniques and must know how to use a knife skillfully.

"So how do I stack up against the other competitors?"

"I would say that with what you got now... you would be guaranteed to beat the first twelve people, but after that, it's uncertain."

"I see..."

"There are rewards as I have stated earlier, they also include helping your abilities, like strength and speed, but there are also other rewards like a health potion, a special storage space that only you can access, currency from your world, and many others."

"There are things like that?"

"Indeed. There is also a category of women to satisfy you as you stay here."

"You can stop there Kaneki..."

***

One month to go, one month to pack all of his combat training together.

"A question for you Kaneki."

"What is it?"

"Do you get anything out of me if I reach higher stages?"

"And what brings you to ask that?"

"Well, there has to be a motive behind being a host, right? There's always a factor of the motivation behind all of this work that somebody puts into a job. So what's yours?"

"How curious... I may have accidentally taught you how to be perceptive too. No matter. Yes, I am getting something out of you clearing each floor. Each time you win, there is a token I earn. The more floors I clear, the more tokens I gain, and the closer I get to be a test administrator. Though I am limited on how many times I can earn these said tokens. The higher-ups give each host ten times to bet on a challenger. If their challenger makes it through twenty-five rounds, I get twenty-five tokens, and so on."

"How many attempts do you have left?"

Kaneki gave a smile and pointed at Akashi

"You are my last attempt. After that, I cannot advance, and will stay as a host for the rest of my life."

"Now why would you do that?"

"You seemed like a good choice."

"I'm guessing your guess was out of the gut."

"Indeed it was"

"How many more tokens do you need?"

"Currently I have twenty-seven tokens out of the nine challengers I handled, and to become a test administrator, you need a hundred of them, so seventy-three tokens."

"Well... don't get your hopes up."

"I know that... You will also receive the primary weapon on the twenty-fifth floor, that is if you clear it. You will have the choice of leaving with all of the skills and weapons you acquired, or continue climbing the tower, but fighting monsters in the stead of competitors."

"Well, let's just hope that I make it that far... cause I know I'm easily outmatched by the others."

"It's good that you acknowledge that."

***

The training had ended, the month had also ended. Marking the beginning of the challenges and floors that Akashi must climb. He had his knife on his arm, his whole body was covered in very light but durable armor and very wore a light, aerodynamic cloak. He was ready

"Good luck to you Akashi. You're going to need it."

***

He was in a room that separated him from the gated area. He doesn't know what lies ahead for him beyond this gate, but he does know it's going to be a challenge to get to the end.

"I wonder how this is going to turn out for me... a fight... for life.", he thought to himself

***

The gates opened and Akashi took in a deep breath and walked out of the room. He was out in the open and looked around. He saw a group of people staring at him from a row of seats. The place he was in looked like a coliseum he looked across from him. There was another person with a sword on his back. The sword looked like one that was in the armory. It was a straight, broad blade.

"Stage one will now commence... BEGIN!"

And so the fight begins...