Chapter 7 - The Room of 77

Chapter 7

~

After Nana and Yama fetched their bags and Vanessa was done taking a call the four of them walked into the gym into and entered a large reception area. In contrast to Yama's imagination, everything wasn't coated in gold and gems. Rather, the room was decorated in a pleasantly classy white theme giving off a sharp and efficient feeling.

"Oh, right. Do you want separate rooms?" Jonah turned to ask while Yama curiously looked around as discreetly as he could, not wanting to stand out.

"Hmm, what do you say Nana?" Yama decided to ask for Nana's opinion. He knew she was self sufficient enough to live alone despite her age, it was just that there was a risk she would 'forget' to do things she didn't think was necessary.

Nana just let out a small uninterested noise in response, she didn't really mind either way.

"I suppose we'll live together for now." His worries won out in the end.

"Alright." Jonah shrugged and walked to the front desk, talking to the receptionist for a couple of minutes before he returned with a black metallic keycard with a silver stripe along it's right side and the number 77 engraved on the other, chucking it at Yama who hurriedly caught it with both hands.

"There's a bit of a walk since the apartments are on the other side of the building, do you want a carrier or something?" Jonah asked courteously as he pointed at their bags. Yama didn't look like the most fit person there was, this on top of his old age made him look even slimmer. His bag also looked pretty heavy since he had alot of his old knick knacks with him.

"I'm fine. Though, thank you for your consideration." Yama nodded with a light smile, adjusting the bag strap over his shoulder.

"Got it. Let's get going then." Jonah shrugged his shoulders and started walking as he idly locked his hands behind his head, the group following behind him.

A few minutes of walking and multple staircases later the four of them stood in front of a metallic dark gray door, a sign reading 77 hanging to the right of it with a card reader placed below that.

"Haa... Haa... Thank you little Nana." Yama panted with his hands on his knees slumped over. Although he felt fine walking for a while even with his large bag on his shoulder, taking stairs was another matter. He was fine the first three floors before he started struggling, fortunately Nana was a perceptive as ever, handing Jonah her vr device and carrying his bag herself while slinging hers onto her back.

"Hey I forgot to ask before, but what's this thing anyway? It looks like a sci-fi movie prop or something." Jonah asked curiously as he inspected the box from different angles.

"Oh... Haa... little Nana was hired as a stress tester for vr technology a few days ago. I don't really know how it works but that device is supposed to let her enter a digital world." Yama explained after taking a minute to recover. There was nothing barring the contractee or himself as her guardian from telling others about the project, they just couldn't allow others to use the console itself.

"Huh!? Really!?" Jonah exlaimed in shock at the news, genuine vr technology actually existed for real!? He wasn't interested in the business world in the first place so he didn't know alot about it, not to mention that the vr project was sponsored by a single individual and alot of people just outright dismissed it as useless nonsense upon first hearing about it, it wasn't very well known in general.

"You didn't know? Mom and Dad are getting involved as sponsors in the project supplying better facilities, you know?" Vanessa suddenly interrupted.

"What!? Why didn't anyone tell me!?"

"...When have you ever been interested in the business side of the family?" She retorted with a dismissive expression on her face.

"But this is vr! Vr! Do you think I can apply as a stress tester too? You said Mom and Dad are sponsors right?" Jonah asked frantically while very making sure to be very careful in handling the box, almost pleading.

"Why would I know? Ask them yourself." Vanessa shrugged uncaringly, she, like her mother, didn't see what all the rage was, but her dad was confident it would succeed and he had been right about projects she and her mother were skeptical about before.

"Eh- Ah- Hold this!" Jonah was just about to bolt downstairs to borrow the reception's phone since he left his in the car when he suddenly remembered the vr console and gingerly handed it to Vanessa before taking off running as fast as he could.

Vanessa who was suddenly handed the box was a bit flabbergasted at his urgency and almost dropped it before quickly readjusting her grip when she remembered that it belonged to Nana.

"Honestly, does he have to be in such a hurry all the time?" She mumbled helplessly, shaking her head before turning to Yama. "Well? What's the hold up? Unlock the door so I can place this down, my arms are getting tired." She huffed haughtily.

"Oh, sorry, my bad." Yama apologized meekly and swiftly swiped the card prompting a small beep before the door automatically slid open to reveal a hallway leading further inside.

Vanessa confidently walked past him and stepped out of her shoes, leaving them on the rectangular indent about 10 cm deep just past the door, before stepping up on the threshold and making her way deeper into the apartment.

Yama was left blinking in the doorway before snapping out of it. "Go on, little Nana." He gestured for her to go inside and closed the door behind them after she did using a small button he found on the side of the wall labeled 'close' which was very convenient.

After taking off his usual brown longcoat, the two also made their way inside.

The small hallway opened up into a larger rectangular room with wooden floor and white walls, the hallway connecting to it's side, with a kitchen area further in, black kitchen cupboards lining the right corner of the room along with a stove, and a fan, an oven, a dishwasher, a sink and a massive fridge.

Slightly to the left of it was a large kitchen island with a large countertop made of some sort of smooth white stone with a slight shine to it with veins of blue shooting through it held up by more black cupboards.

The wall directly in front of them consisted of floor to roof windows, one of which was a sliding door leading out to a spacious balcony.

The left of the room was made to be a leisure area, a large tv screen hanging on the wall with a small table in front of it and an L shaped sofa placed behind it with the corner facing towards them, while directly to the left and right of them were another two hallways leading to more rooms further inside.

"Ugh..." Vanessa very carefully placed the vr console down on the counter of the kitchen island before turning towards the two of them and gestured at the room. "Well, this is it. It's a bit shabby, but what can you expect from something attached to a gym."

"Shabby..." Yama whispered with a wry smile. As expected, their view of 'shabby' was very different indeed.

"Anyway, there's a grocery store just a couple of minutes from here so go ask the reception for the way later. I've gotta go handle a few things though so I'm leaving. Make yourself at home and all that." Vanessa introduced flippantly before starting to make her way towards the exit, giving Nana a pat on the head on the way out.

*Cough*"You had something in your hair. By the way, call me if you need anything I added my number into your phone." She added quickly before beating a hasty retreat, the door opening and closing being heard a few seconds later.

"..."

"...Well, I suppose we should get settled in for now." Yama mused to himself and went to look at the other rooms finding 1 large and 2 medium sized bedrooms along with a large bathroom including both a decently sized shower and a bathtub big enough to fit around 6 people comfortably.

Gently nudging Nana into the larger bedroom and telling her to unpack her things, Yama went to do the same in one of the medium sized bedrooms. About 15 minutes later Yama felt his shirt snag on something and looked behind him to see Nana kitted out in her workout outfit tugging at his shirt.

"Oh, do you want to go take a look at the gym, Nana?" Yama asked gently, he was honestly surprised she managed to wait as long as she did.

Nana nodded her head, a few traces of expectation coloring her otherwise blank expression.

"Do you remember the way back?"

Another nod.

"You go ahead then. I'll finish unpacking my things and then go look for that grocery store Miss Chambers was talking about, do you think you can go to the gym alone?"

"Mn."

"Good, go have fun then." Yama nodded with a gentle expression on his face and patted her head before she turned around and walked out of the room. He wasn't worried about leaving her alone since he had seen multiple surveillance cameras and even guards dotting the building during their walk from the entrance.

Not to mention that Nana could take care of herself... mostly.

---

Chang-hoon who had changed into a workout outfit consisting of some loose grey shorts over tight knee length underpants and a pair of black mma gloves with yellow accents looked around the gym scratching his head.

"Where is she?" He mumbled in confusion, he had made a few laps around the whole room to look for her but he didn't see the little girl the kid brought back with him.

Deciding to go look for Jonah and ask him if he knew where she was instead of aimlessly wandering around, he made his way to the receptionist desk since they had access to surveillance, one of the perks of being an instructor/guard for the gym was being able to use it whenever he wanted to.

"Hmm?" Chang-hoon's eyebrow raised as he heard who he was looking for whining about something, rounding the corner he saw Jonah with a pitiful expression on his face, listlessly draped over the counter with a phone in hand.

"...-lease~"

"Come on, sis said you guys are investing in the project, can't you just free up a single spot?"

"Why not!?"

"..."

"Well that's stupid! Why the hell would they make referrals mandatory!? Do you know any of the participants at least?"

Jonah was on the verge of tears. First he discovered vr technology was actually a thing which was awesome, unfortunately, when he quickly called his mom to ask for a spot she said that all the devices had already been allocated to previous participants to hand out meaning he wouldn't be able to get his hands on one until either a new version was developed for another round of testing, or someone left the project by themselves. Who the hell would deny the chance to try vr, huh!?

"I-Is there no other way..." Jonah sniffled miserably into the phone, hoping for a miracle.

Though instead of a miracle, the opposite arrived when he saw a very familiar figure quietly standing to the side out of the corner of his eye.

Jonah's body froze up as he slowly looked up to see Chang-hoon with an absolutely shit eating grin on his face as he looked down at him with mock pity, speaking up in a baby voice.

"Awww~ Is widdle Jonah gon' cwy? S' okay, s' okay-" The massive asshole continued and patted his back in patronizingly, his whole face practically radiating with glee. "Want me to get a bottle for ya?"

"..."

"Shut up, you motherfucker!" Jonah went quiet for a few seconds wanting to dig a hole to jump into and bury himself in, but since he couldn't, his embarrassment from acting like a child to potentially convince his mom to try harder to get him a vr device turned to shame-filled anger instead and he shouted impulsively, slamming his hand onto the phone.

"...Jonah Chambers, was that a curse I heard?" His mother's stern voice was suddenly heard from the phone. Apparently he had accidentally hit the speaker button in his outburst.

"Eh... No...?" Jonah whimpered pitifully already knowing what was coming, and sure enough. His mother launched a 10 minute long tirade on why cursing was only for inarticulate idiots who are unable to properly use words to convey their meanings strongly enough resulting in incorporating cursing into their speech to emphasize their delivery, trying to seem bigger than they were.

"Do you understand now?"

"...Yes mom..."

"Good. Now I'm a bit busy at the moment, I'll see you at home tonight. Love you."

"Love you too..." Jonah echoed with a strained smile and collapsed onto the counter as soon as the call disconnected, releasing a tortured groan. "Urgh..."

"Well, that was entertaining." Chang-hoon quipped cheerfully as he looked down at his half-dead disciple with amusement glinting in his eyes.

"What did you want anyway you asshole?" Jonah sighed deeply, too mentally tired to even try snapping back at him at the moment. His mom had the 'amazing' ability most moms did. She could speak for an eternity without pausing which, much to his dismay, often lead to hour long lectures about things she didn't like. Luckily she was busy today and let him off with just 10 minutes.

"Ohoho, are you sure you want to use such dirty language against me, young man?"

"Fuck off."

"Kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Fff-..." Jonah grit his teeth and clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white as his anger reached a boiling point and glared up at his taekwondo instructor who still had that shit eating grin on his face. He contemplated engaging him but ultimately held himself back, remembering that his mother occasionally checked the gym's surveillance footage when she was bored.

Hopefully she skims over this section as long as he doesn't do anything noticeable.

"Just spit it out." He growled.

"Fine, fine. I'll stop... for now." Chang-hoon heard Jonah grinding his teeth and hid a smirk before he continued. "Anyway, where's the girl?"

"Nana? Why are you looking for her?" Jonah asked in bewilderment. He couldn't think of a single reason this asshole of an instructor would want to find Nana, they had only met for like 5 minutes.

"I want to see how she is in the ring. If you're telling the truth and she actually beat you, I want to see her fighting with my own eyes." Chang-hoon shrugged nonchalantly. He actually wanted to continue prodding her terrifying perception and maybe even use it to help him hone his ability to hide signs of an attack.

"She should be in their room, I guess." Jonah shrugged casually.

"Their? And what do you mean, 'I guess'? Didn't you show the way? This place is confusing as fuck if you don't know your way around, you know that."

"Yama, the old man that stood with me outside, he is her legal guardian. Also I ran off when we arrived in front of their door so they're probably unpacking and stuff."

"Oh." Chang-hoon let out a noise of disappointment as a pondering expression slowly surfaced on his face. Since they pretty much just got here, maybe they would rest for a few days? That'd be kinda disappointing, though.

"Say-"

Chang-hoon's sentence was suddenly cut off by a muffled cheer which made the both of them pause. Looking at each other in confusion for a few seconds, it wasn't long until another cheer sounded.

"What's going on?" Chang-hoon mumbled under his breath as a curious frown appeared on his face and started making his way back to the gym where it was coming from. Jonah quickly scrambled out from behind the desk and chased after him after properly putting the phone back.

As the two approached the gym, the sounds of a large crowd got louder and louder, spiking in volume when Chang-hoon opened the glass door leading inside. Looking around, Chang-hoon quickly spotted a large gathering towards the back of the gym where multiple sparring rings were arranged in a line.

Walking over, the two of them were just in time to hear a harsh thud before another cheer once again erupted.

"Oi, what's happening." Chang-hoon impatiently smacked one of the gym members on the arm with a stern face and shouted loudly, making sure he was heard through all the noise.

"Huh?" The guy he chose instantly whirled around and let out a startled, "Master Chang-hoon!", upon seeing him standing right behind him and got a bit flustered, though he quickly regained his composure upon seeing his increasingly narrowing eyes and rushed to explain.

"Well, uh... A little girl suddenly challenged one of the guys loitering around the ring to a fight, the guy decided to humor her and started showing off some flashy moves before suddenly getting knocked out by a shoulder check into an elbow followed by an uppercut." He explained excitedly before suddenly coughing meekly as he scratched at the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "After that um... she continued challenging more people, and winning, which made a crowd gather..."

"They lost, huh?..." Chang-hoon mused as he rubbed his chin in thought, sending a glance at Jonah who had a smug little smile on his face.

"Ye- No! I mean... I'm sure they wouldn't have lost if they were serious! Ahahaha..." The guy laughed nervously. Although none of the instructors gave out personal lessons they often used the gym to just work out, spar between themselves or tutor Jonah and there has been multiple instances of members getting the boot because they were just lazing around in their presence, so everyone always tried impressing them as much as they could.

This lead to a sort of tacit understanding between the gym members to always give your best when an instructor was nearby, and numerous members losing to a little girl didn't really paint them in the best of lights which could implicate everyone.

"Move it, I'm gonna take a look." Chang-hoon abruptly ordered as a curious light flashed past his eyes.

"Huh? Uh, oh... Oh! Right away!" The suddenness of the request slightly stunned the guy before he quickly moved out of the way, quickly tapping the guy behind him and gesturing for him to move aswell which he immediately did when he looked back to see Chang-hoon already moving towards him.

This sequence of events repeated until Chang-hoon finally got through the crowd, raising an eyebrow in interest once he saw the awkward situation present in the ring. The little girl was standing in the middle of the ring in a traditional boxing stance while he quickly identified her current opponent as a taekwondo trainee, a taekwondo trainee who for some reason was hesitant to approach despite his kick focused martial art allowing for an advantage in reach.

"What the hell is he doing so far away?" Chang-hoon's face gained a fierce frown as he glared at the guy in dissatisfaction. He would understand if he wanted more space to gather momentum for a stronger strike, but the guy was standing like 5 meters away with a hesitant expression plastered on his face.

Chang-hoon decided to spectate for now, though as the time passed his frown gradually deepend as his fingers started impatiently drumming against his crossed arm in irritation. After about a minute of waiting the guy finally moved, slowly stepping forward and throwing a telegraphed front kick at the girl's stomach.

To Chang-hoon's absolute confusion however, the girl just ignored it, not even trying to move from her place as her dull eyes flickering with slight curiosity remained locked onto her opponent's body letting the kick land with a small noise of his foot smacking against her skin.

Even weirder however was that after that, as her opponent backed off slightly, she seemingly zoned out on the spot, the vacant expression he had seen before resurfacing on her face. It was subtle enough most people wouldn't have noticed though since from what he gathered during their first meeting, it was basically the same expression she usually wore.

...Or maybe she just zoned out alot.

Seeing her opponent return to his previous spot with another hesitant look Chang-hoon shouted at him in irritation. "Oi!" The guy turned to look at him with a startled face. "What the fuck are you pussy-footing for!?"

"Oh, uh. Master Chang-hoon!" He nervously blinked before quickly saluting him with a bow after which he turned to look at the girl with a face of not really knowing what to do. "Um... I don't want to kick her too hard, and she suddenly stopped moving after our first exchange for some reason. Sir!" He reported swiftly.

"Hmm." Chang-hoon grunted with a thoughtful frown on his face, musing to himself as he gave the girl another look before deciding to check on her himself. Grabbing the net as leverage, he pulled himself up to the ring's outer edge and vaulted over the wall landing inside. Standing up, he gestured at her opponent with his head while shaking out his limbs. "You. Out."

"Y-Yes, Master Chang-hoon!" The guy quickly scrambled to get out after a short bow.

Chang-hoon hummed to himself as he walked up to her and prodded her a bit, nudging her shin, poking her face and pushing around her arms receiving a questioning head tilt in return before suddenly sweeping her legs from under her, making her land hard on her side hitting her head on the canvas.

The girl blinked a few times, seemingly in confusion before just standing up again and re-entering her stance, not minding what happened.

"Huh." He let out simply with raised eyebrows before taking a few steps backwards until he determined the range to be perfect. The instant he started shifting his weight the girl's eyes instantly snapped over to him intently watching his movements, still not moving, leading to her eating a front kick with her chin, the sound of a whip lashing out resounding from the impact while her head was forced back, her body harshly slamming down onto the canvas.

"Wha- Hey! What the hell are you doing!?"

Chang-hoon ignored Jonah's outraged shout, the rest of the crowd too scared to speak up. He contemplated what he'd seen so far as he watched the girl once again blink a few times before simply standing up, re-taking her stance like nothing had happened.

"You're not used to fighting kickers, are you?" He mumbled to himself in thought, though he continued before she could answer. "Well of course you aren't, the kid said he met you in a boxing ring."

Walking closer to her again, ignoring Jonah who was still shouting from outside the ring, he crouched down to her height and looked deeply into her eyes as he raised his arm to brutally pinch her bicep using all of his strength. Feeling her muscles fiercely twitching in agitation under his fingers while a blank expression continued to remain on her face, he confirmed another guess of his he would be hard pressed to discover if he stood further away.

"You do feel pain. You just don't care, do you brat?" Chang-hoon eventually concluded with an impressed scoff as a fanged grin slowly appeared on his face, his interest in the girl rising by the minute. Now he just had one more thing to test and if it actually turned out to be true, he might have just found himself another disciple.

"Oi, you want to learn more, right?" Chang-hoon suddenly asked making her perk up slightly as her gaze wandered over to him.

"I'm givin' ya three tries to replicate the kick I used to punt you away, if you impress me I'll teach you everything I know." He declared with a wild smile stretched across his face as he spread his arms invitingly, holding his hand out as a target at around the height of her chest. "Aim it here, give it your best, you'll need it."

Upon hearing his words the crowd suddenly descended into hushed discussions and whispers.

"Hey, is he for real?"

"Probably? It's kind of impossible, I mean from her stance she's trained in boxing right? Do you think she's ever thrown a kick before?"

"I could probably replicate a kick if I just needed it to kind of look the same."

"Idiot. He said to impress him, you think Master Chang-hoon is gonna be impressed by a half-assed noodle kick?"

"Hey, fuck you bro, that was uncalled for."

"The tallest spike gets hammered down, ain't it?"

"Fuck you, too."

"Either way she is destined to fail. Even if she through some sort of heavenly fortune manages to accidentally perform it, do you think Master Chang-hoon is going to train some little girl? Hmph! Delusional peasants should just stay in the trash where they belong."

"..."

"...Hey what's up with that guy?"

"I dunno. He's always been kind of an asshole, but he started reading those cultivation novels a few days ago, maybe that's why?"

"...Let's move away, I kinda don't wanna stand next to him."

"...Good call."

Nana's dull eyes unhurriedly drifted to his outstretched hand and back to his face, sending him a slightly doubtful look.

"Yup, you just need to do it like I did and I will teach you everything I can. I promise." Chang-hoon reassured cheerfully as he waited with bated breath for her attempt.

Nana let out a small huff through her nose before very, very slowly adjusting her stance into the same one he used, making sure to make it resemble his as closely as possible despite the difference in physique and height, ending up having to adjust it slightly before she was satisfied.

Closing her previously half-lidded eyes, Nana's monstrous mind utilized her impeccable memory of Chang-hoon's movements when he kicked her and overlayed it onto her body while running multiple simulations of her performing the same kick simultaneously making her muscles twitch in certain sequences to make her more familiar with the process.

Chang-hoon's sharp eyes instantly spotted what she was doing, an almost manic look appearing in his eyes as a gigantic grin filled with absolute elation filled his face as he stared at her with an extremely intense fervor that was only increasing by the second.

In her fight against Jonah, she didn't really have time to analyze his fighting style as closely as she could Chang-hoon's kick since she tried doing so while still actually fighting him, not to mention that Jonah's style was obviously multiple different techniques and movements combined into a coherent whole, while Chang-hoon's kick was a single technique so it didn't take very long until she re-opened her eyes.

Nana's murky black eyes containing an infinite depth hidden behind it's muddleness locked onto Chang-hoon's hand, the world around her blurring as she focused in on her target. Taking a short breath, Nana's eyes suddenly cleared slightly before she shot forwards, practically entering the stance in the air as she slid the last bit of distance before her leg almost looking like it disappeared in a blur whipped out like a viscious snake, hitting the middle of his palm with a sharp, crisp sound.

Nana swiftly retreated after hitting her mark, lightly bouncing on her toes like she saw her opponent doing before having figured that they were using the same martial art. She eyed Chang-hoon with a few traces of anticipation showing on her expression, tilting her head as she waited for his verdict.

Chang-hoon quietly stared at his hand where she had kicked, feeling a slightly numb tickling sensation spreading through it like thousands of ants crawling and clenched it tightly as overwhelming excitement rushed through his body making him almost start shaking in exhilaration.

"...Holy crap." Was the thought flashing through minds of the crowd. Although not all of them practiced taekwondo and those that did were at varying levels of mastery, something all martial arts had in common once practiced to an extreme level was a sort of smoothness and nonchalance to a practitioners movements that was next to impossible to emulate no matter what you did.

It was something built up through their martial arts journey, a sort of confidence you obtained when you and your body 'knew' that... you can do this. You have done this countless times before and can easily do it again. Even if you do not remember, you body will. It was like a muscle memory that combined both physical and spiritual 'muscles' giving you access, knowledge and unquestionable certainty that you can without a doubt do this whatever 'this' may be.

However... they had just felt that same feeling coming from the little girl...

"What the fuck is this shit?"

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Want me to pinch you?"

"Kind- Ow!? What the fuck!?"

"Expect the unexpected and preempt the expected. I preempted your agreement I already knew I would get."

"..."

"What if I was about to say 'I kinda don't want you to'?"

"Then I would have expected the unexpected and preemptively acted on that expectation."

"..."

"...You're an asshole, you know that right?"

"...I expected you to say that."

"Fight me right now motherfucker!"

"This, I also exp-! Argh!?..."

"I preempted your expectation."

"Heh... Hehahahaha!" Chang-hoon suddenly burst into joyful laughter as he cracked his knuckles loudly, his gaze turning to Nana with wide eyes shining with satisfaction as a massive mirth filled smirk stretched across his face. "You're just the perfect little disciple, aren't you!? Stubborn enough to shrug off pain, absorbing knowledge like a sponge and the best part is that I can teach you just by beating you up! Crazy brat! You pass! More than pass! I'm gonna turn you into the scariest motherfucker around! Pahahahaha!"

"Mh..." Nana hummed flatly in reponse, she didn't really care what others thought about her, though she was a bit excited to finally get someone who could physically instruct her. Coach John, although knowledgeable, taught her by describing the movements and then correcting her where she went wrong.

It wasn't like she didn't think she could learn purely by vocal instructions, it was just that she'd rather learn by having techniques used against her since it provided not only a more accurate mental picture of the process, it also helped her figure out how others may respond when having it used against them.

"Alright, then! We're beginning with the first lesson immediately, eyes on me now." Chang-hoon suddenly declared esctatically and before anyone could react turned, pivoted on his foot and sent a razor sharp roundhouse kick into Nana's side sending her smaller and lighter body flying.

A round of hisses and winces echoed all across the gym as she got flung into the net before rebounding, harshly crashing down onto the canvas with a rough thud, a noticeable red imprint where his kick had landed.

"Hey, Chang-hoon! What the hell, man!?" Jonah shouted loudly as he eyed Nana in concern, that asshole wasn't holding back his power at all. Even he would be hard-pressed to stand up again if he got hit with something like that. Although surprised, he was happy Chang-hoon took an interest in training Nana since that would quickly make her even stronger of a sparring partner. However, what the hell was he doing throwing borderline crippling kicks around.

It would floor most of the adults he knew, much less a 12 year old.

"Oh shut it, kid. You don't have to worry about her, she knows her limits better than you and I. I'll stop when she wants me to." Chang-hoon scoffed unconcernedly as he crossed his arms, giving him a dismissive glance.

"What do you mean limits!? She's probably already knocked out from-..." Jonah screamed, glaring at Chang-hoon about to try getting it through his thick skull that his kicks were fucking terrifying before his voice slowly tapered off towards the end.

Nana let out a slight grunt from her place on the canvas before quickly pushing herself back up to her feet and walking back into her previous position, taking a stance in the middle of the ring with a blank expression, though her eyes had cleared up slightly and gained a slight luster as she eyed Chang-hoon more intently than before.

"Wha-" Jonah sputtered in shock. Chang-hoon was barely holding back when he threw that kick and the only visible sign of her taking a still active legend's kick to the side was the red imprint it left behind.

"Heh. Told ya, kid. She's made of sturdier stuff than you." Chang-hoon ridiculed with a mocking smile before looking back to Nana. "Now that I know that you can take a hit, I won't be stopping until you can't take anymore so get ready." He warned before shooting forwards and sending another kick at her.

Their lesson continued for multiple hours during which Chang-hoon didn't just stick to linear or 'hard' force focused techniques like punching and kicking, even using headbutts and other methods to strike your opponent, he also utilized circular or 'soft' techniques more focused on redirection and manipulation like throws, pressure point targetting, joint locks, chokes and so on.

Of course, he also had Nana try using them back against him and then using freeing techniques to escape her holds.

Something he noticed was that although she pretty much ignored pain, when he hit her pressure points her body would predictably just lock up regardless since her muscles would spasm so much she couldn't move, though she was right back at it as soon as it ceased despite the pain it would leave behind. She was also unsurprisingly very inexperienced with grapples and chokes which was something he would have to work on.

He did find it a bit odd that she didn't even have that much knowledge regarding clinches since she was pretty skilled in boxing but didn't dwell on it.

Taekwondo may be primarily focused on your legs and keeping your distance while sending powerful kicks at your opponent, but that didn't mean you would always be allowed to do as you pleased in a fight and even if you could, you won't always be calm enough to execute them properly.

It didn't matter if you knew countless different techniques and martial arts if in an actual fight you resorted to slug it out like a thug.

The crowd continued watching with a sense of morbid curiosity as one of their instructors systematically beat up a little girl who just got up after getting knocked down again and again, bruises starting to cover more and more of her body the longer they went on.

Contrary to their expectations however, rather than slowing down and becoming sluggish in response to all the hits she was taking, the girl was seemingly getting increasingly more energetic and vigorous.

Her previously bored dull face and apathetic half-lidded eyes having slowly changed over the course of the 'lesson' becoming more animated and full of the vibrancy a girl her age should have, somehow managing to exude a refreshing feeling of freedom akin to weightlessly soaring through the infinitely blue sky despite her face barely changing making the onlookers feel an odd sense of naive innocence and endlessly pure curiosity radiating from her.

Shocking them even more however, was that it wasn't the girl who tapped out first but Chang-hoon.

A haggardly panting Chang-hoon pushed through his exhaustion and managed to get the little stamina devil in a chokehold. The two of them were practically dripping in sweat by this point, the girl was covered in wounds, bruises and her own blood also panting heavily while he sported a nasty black eye from when she managed to surprise him halfway through the fight.

Chang-hoon inwardly groaned in misery as she continued to fiercely struggle against his hold and had half a mind to plead for her to stay down. He had been going pretty much all out for multiple hours with no breaks inbetween and he was fucking exhausted to shit, he was basically running on fumes at this point.

On the contrary, the little monster currently straining against his hold trying to headbutt him in the nose was unrelenting in her endeavor to seemingly make him physically collapse from exhaustion.

"Haa... Haa... Haa... Fucking stay... down already!" Chang-hoon breathlessly wheezed out as he tightened his arm around her throat. Mentally counting to 15 in his head and not wanting to risk permanently damaging her by going further he defeatedly released the still struggling girl who immediately bounced back up onto her feet though noticeably slower than when they started.

What the actual fuck is this shit even? 10 seconds should be enough to knock someone out on the premise of it being performd properly, something he was very confident he was, just ask the couple dozen people he had subdued exactly the same way in official matches, so why the hell was she just ignoring scientific facts?

That's not even going into her sheer durability and stamina. She was nowhere near actually beating him in a fight, she lacked the skills, strength and speed to realistically even have a chance, everything she had thrown barring the one time she took him by surprise has been blocked and parried.

However.

She wouldn't fucking stay down either!

This resulted in some sort of scuffed stalemate with her being unable to actually hurt him, meawhile, whilst he could actually hurt her, she just shrugged it off and pushed through anyway.

"Haa... Haa... I give, I give... I can't be assed with this shit anymore... I want to actually get home sometime today." Chang-hoon decided to just end the lesson for today, his pride could go fuck itself somewhere else, he stayed splayed out down on the canvas like a starfish as he sucked as much air into his lungs as he could. Right now, he just wanted to fuck off back to his house maybe take a quick shower and then pass out on his bed.

"...Mh." Nana hummed slightly in understanding before allowing her body, only still standing purely due to her unending willpower at this point, to relax making her promptly collapse down unto the canvas as her legs gave out. She quietly panted breathlessly as she felt the muscles all over her body protest in overexertion as she slowly cooled down, her adrenaline receding and leaving her as a ball of soreness and agony.

"Nana!" Jonah who stood surrounded by a deadly silent crowd worriedly shouted when he saw her collapse and quickly climbed up and into the ring, rushing to check on her. Although there was what must've been hundreds of instances during their fight where he wanted to stop the 'lesson', he felt like it wasn't fair for him to decide her limits for himself and stop it even when she wanted to continue.

He sure would've been pissed if someone did that to him so he refrained, hopefully that was the right choice. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he indirectly caused her permanent damage or something.

Carefully propping her head up with his hand and seeing that she was at least still conscious, he asked her a question to see if she was still lucid enough to answer, which she was, answering with a small nod. Next he asked her to follow his fingers with her eyes which she also managed just fine followed by asking her to squeeze his hand which she could making him breathe a slight sigh of relief.

It wasn't guaranteed she didn't have any damage, but at least she probably wasn't in danger, he hoped anyway.

"Wait he- uh... I'll be back soon, I'm gonna go get the gym's doctor." Jonah rambled hastily and gently laid her head back down before darting up to his feet and rushing away, the crowd subconsciously parting around him.

All the other gym members stood outside the ring in a shell-shocked state not even knowing what to think as the 'lesson' played through their minds. If they hadn't been here to personally witness it and someone told them about it later, they all would have called them a liar.

Someone other than one of the instructors had basically went up against Master Chang-hoon in a high-intensity no holds barred sparring match and although she came out of it with more damage, she remained standing longer than he did in the end.

As they stood numbly rooted in their places, their minds blanking, they were brought out of their dazes by a gruff shout shrouded in exhaustion.

"The hell are you just standing around like lifelike scarecrows for, huh!?"

Recognizing the voice they were all startled and their heads snapped towards Chang-hoon who had propped himself up to a sitting position with an arm lazily placed over a raised knee as he glared at them fiercely, his eyes glinting dangerously.

A chorus of stuttered responses echoed out in the gym as they didn't really know what to say, still scrambled by what had just transpired.

"D'you idiots get hit in the head so much ya lost your ability to speak, huh!? Fuck outta here before I make you!" Chang-hoon loudly warned with a growl in his voice and a scowl on his face as he slowly stood up and walked towards the exit of the ring, he was way past the point of caring about anything other than his path back to his house and thereby his bed being blocked by a sea of goons.

Seeing him suddenly standing up and beginning to walk towards the ring's exit on top of his threat, everyone practically trampled on each other to leave the gym as fast as possible. Chang-hoon's temper was very well known in the Silverscale Gym and no one wanted to be on the receiving end of it when he was pissed.

20 seconds later, the two of them were the only people left in the gym.

"Little devil, you still alive down there?" Chang-hoon asked gruffly, receiving a small grunt as he sluggishly went to fetch her mouthguard which had been sent flying sometime during the fight. Picking up the slightly bloody piece of plastic he idly noted that it wasn't one of the gym distributed ones and raised an eyebrow upon seeing the teeth indents when he turned it around.

"The hell?" He mumbled involuntarily and directed a curious glance at Nana who had managed to shakily push herself up to her feet.

"Oi little devil, lemme see your chompers for a sec." Chang-hoon said as he walked over and handed her the mouthguard making her stare at him inquisitively, opening her mouth upon reading the insistence in his body language.

"...Those real?" Chang-hoon let out, a bit stunned upon seeing a row of shark teeth lining her gums and couldn't resist prodding them a bit with his finger, feeling their razor sharp points. "Damn those are sharp as he-" He muttered in slight wonder before Nana's mouth suddenly clamped shut.

"Ah..." He blinked in incomprehension at the suddenness before his body processed the feeling of having his finger stabbed.

"Ahh!?~" Chang-hoon let out a massive scream of pain. "F-Fuckin' open! Open!" He managed to grit out through the agony, Nana's mouth opening again a few moments later making him quickly retract his hand from the deathtrap he voluntarily stuck them into.

"Fffff-" Chang-hoon tightly grasped his shaking hand as a shuddering breath escaped him, fortunately when he looked down he saw that his fingers were still attached to his hand making him let out a sigh in relief.

"I... I'm so fucking done with today." He mumbled, on the verge or tears as he tiredly got up and started walking out of the ring surrounded by a dense cloud of resignation.

"No lessons tomorrow." He murmured before exiting the ring, and the gym a few moments later leaving behind a small perplexed whisper.

"...I'm not getting old, am I?"

Nana who was left standing in the ring alone tilted her head in confusion, unable to understand why he wanted to see her teeth and why he was surprised when he did, idly remembering that Sam reacted roughly the same way when she first saw them, too.

"Hm..."

Humming in thought for a few seconds, she eventually decided that she didn't really care enough to find out the reason why and started shakily dragging her battered and bleeding body back towards her new abode.

...

"-es in here! Hurry up! Go faster!"

A loud voice shouted from outside the gym before Jonah promptly burst through the door with a thin but tall elderly man with grey hair done up in a tight bun leaving two strands to frame the sides of his face wearing a meticulously buttoned up white coat over a light blue shirt and voluminous black pants hastily following in behind him.

Dai Hui sported a severe frown on his wizened face as he habitually adjusted his rectangular thin-framed silver glasses which had gotten crooked during their rush.

He was just finishing up some documents requesting a new stock of medicinal supplies and a check-up of some of the older equipment in his 'office'. A fairly large part of the gym was actually a dedicated medial wing which housed both a handful of nurses and a few select doctors with a variety of specializations they each excelled in.

It was pretty much a mandatory requirement since although the chance of a serious injury ever happening was rather low as long as everyone behaved themselves appropriately, this was a martial arts gym, and despite the fact that most martial arts also incorporated a mental aspect into their teachings, the majority would probably agree that punching and kicking was what attracted most of them to take up martial arts in the first place.

This only got more dangerous when you added in irresponsible idiots into the equation, and with a small chunk of the gym's members consisting of spoiled children with a sense of self-worth the size of the moon and next to no responsibility to speak of, well...

Fights breaking out in the gym were fairly common all things said and if one of the participants couldn't control themselves then something would probably break. Although most parents probably understood the possible consequences of sending their kids to practice martial arts, their children returning home with a broken arm was never a pleasant experience.

There have been multiple cases of angry parents sending all kinds of threats because of their kid being injured and although it was understandable to a degree, alot of them were just unreasonable. Demanding compensation because your arrogant asshole of a kid went to pick a fight with someone after idling around at a few beginner lessons and returning after being beat into the ground required a special kind of idiocy.

Another reason it was established was that Jonah's instructors could get a bit 'too' into their spars and ending up barely able to tell left from right, sometimes not even that, by the end of it.

They were all monsters in their respective martial arts with bodies trained to the physical extreme.

And now one of those idiots had apparently thought that sparring against a little girl without holding back in the guise of a 'lesson' was a good idea.

When Jonah had suddenly barged into his office rambling about an emergency he had quickly fetched his trusty medical bag and rushed towards the gym as fast as he could while asking about the situation on the way, and of course it was that bricks for brain yankee Chang-hoon who decided to take on another 'disciple' and then spend the next few hours wailing on her in the ring.

"Where is she?" Dai Hui asked with a frown as he walked towards the sparring rings, his sharp eyes searching for the girl and not finding anyone.

"Huh?" Jonah blinked in surprise upon turning around and not seeing anyone left in the gym before quickly running towards the ring they used and jumped up on it's side, holding onto the net to not fall. Looking into it he saw nothing except the blood stains scattered throughout, Nana's figure quite clearly missing.

"Does that absolute imbecile have no sense of measure!?" Dai Hui's thundered loudly in outrage, his eyes narrowing dangerously while his sense of urgency quickly grew stronger, growing more and more concerned about the girl's state upon seeing the amount of blood present in the ring.

*Cough*

Jonah abruptly coughed into his arm and quickly averted his gaze from the simmering doctor while doing his best to remain as inconspicious as possible, trying to explain to Dai Hui that he probably could have stopped the match if he really tried but didn't because he wouldn't have wanted someone to stop his match if he was in Nana's shoes would probably go across about as well as a fish on land.

"Do you know where she went?" Dai Hui demanded impatiently as he leveled Jonah a scorching glare, having a feeling that the brat just thought about something he really would not have liked.

"Huh!? Oh... uh, I-I don't know?" Jonah startled and quickly schooled his features as he turned around with an innocent face, though he quickly deflated and once again averted his gaze upon seeing Dai Hui's intense expression and stammered out a response.

"Che." Dai Hui's face scrunched up in worry as he paused in thought, a few seconds later he had an idea and briskly made his way towards the reception desk to find out where she went using the surveillance footage, Jonah hurriedly following behind when he saw him leaving.

Dai Hui's face worsened as he clicked through their 'lesson' and scowled heavily as a particularly heavy spinning side kick nailed Nana in the head with enough force to make her bounce multiple times after being slammed down against the canvas.

"Is he trying to kill her!?" He angrily whispered under his breath, shaking in rage as he saw the injuries on her body increasing with his every move. There was also a small part of him that watched the little girl getting up again and again in increasing disbelief, she should have passed out from both pain and exhaustion at two tenths of what she went through.

Finally getting to the end of their 'lesson' and impatiently skipping through the next few minutes Dai Hui saw her shakingly make her way out of the gym section of the building towards the apartment complexes and eventually arriving in front of door 77, entering after it opened a few seconds following her knocking while her small body twitched and trembled the whole way there.

Grabbing his medical bag Dai Hui quickly stood up and started a brisk walk towards the room as he mentally went through possible damages and countermeasures against them. If she could still force herself to walk after all that, he didn't know if she wasn't as banged up as he thought or if she was just stubborn as a rock.

---

Yama sighed lightly as he scratched his chin in slight frustration.

He had finished packing up his things about 20 minutes after Nana had left after which he went to the reception desk who pointed him to the grocery store a couple blocks down the street. The prices were surprisingly reasonable for such a high-end community, being roughly 50% higher than he was used to, however they were also higher in quality and much fresher.

After another half an hour later he was back at their apartment and spent the next few minutes stocking the fridge with the ingredients he bought before sitting down and thinking for a bit.

Chad's offer of teaching him stock trading had been momentarily rebuffed due to the circumstances so he had to think of something else. Currently, they didn't really need more money thanks to Jonah's kindness and he was a bit stumped on what else to pursue to make himself 'stronger'.

He got his answer, and a minor heart attack, when he was brought out of his daze by knocks on the door, glancing at the clock he startled a bit when he realised that he had been stuck in thought for a few hours.

Swiftly making his way to the door and opening it with another button beside it, he felt like he had all the air knocked out of him upon seeing a bloody, bruised Nana holding her mouthguard in her hand trembling unsteadily in front of him looking just a few seconds from passing out.

Yama's eyes widened in shock, mind blanking as he instantly reached out to hold her in a frantic manner before hesitating upon seeing her whole body practically covered in wounds and swelling.

"Nana! What happened!?" He asked as he suppressed a shuddering breath, his breathing slightly picking up in pace. He couldn't panic yet, panicking never helped anything he was well aware of that.

"Come in quickly!" Yama immediately moved out of the way, his hands worriedly hovering at her sides to catch her if she were to suddenly fall while she slowly made her way to the kitchen island, plopping down on one of the chairs arranged in a circle around it.

"Got... Teacher..." Nana intoned monotonously with a subtle tone of satisfaction coloring her voice as she wiped some blood dribbling down her chin with her forearm. She had learned alot from her new teacher and was eager to start digesting everything properly.

He also didn't hold back against her which further convinced her that he was a good teacher, he was someone who could help her get used to taking stronger hits to improve her resilience even further.

Yama sported a wry expression, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as he watched Nana contentedly swing her legs back and forth while humming in contentment. He would usually think she looked very cute, being more lively than she usually was but her miserable appearance made that pretty much impossible.

Letting out a massive sigh of exasperation Yama went to get a damp towel from the kitchen and crouched down in front of her with a resigned expression on his face.

"Tell me if it hurts too much, okay?" He whispered gently, receiving a small, "Mn." as he started tenderly clean all the blood off of her. Fortunately, it seems that most of the blood came from her mouth or nose seeing as he didn't find any cuts except a small one on her cheek.

Looking at the increasingly red towel in his hands and the battered little girl in front of him, Yama internally felt his priorities switch slightly. He didn't think Nana would stop fighting anytime soon, if ever, and seeing her all bruised up really tore at his old heart. The thought of persuading her to stop never entered his mind because he knew that she really... well not really burned for it, however, she was at least very curious about it and he could see that she enjoyed it alot.

And if she would repeatedly return in a state similar to this?

...Maybe instead of a protector shielding her from pain and danger, he could be a tender hand mending her pain and pulling her back from danger?

...

Yama felt himself gradually calm down as his mind finally recognized that she wasn't on the edge of croaking, her gentle humming further helping his taut body relax as he slowly cleaned off all the blood.

Just as he was about finished however hurried footsteps sounded from the distant corridor, getting louder and louder before they entered their apartment, Yama's heartbeat spiking as he realised he never closed the door behind him due to his worry.

Hastily standing up in a panic, Yama frantically searched around for anything to defend himself and Nana with as his mind quickly jumped to the worst possibilities due to both Nana's current state and his fight or flight instincts being overpowered by his desire to protect her.

Though before he could get too far, an elderly man wearing a white coat rushed inside closely followed by Jonah which relieved his worries.

Breathing out a sigh of relief with a hand over his heart Yama calmed down, now that he thought about it, burglars would probably be picked up by the surveillance cameras and stopped by the guards stationed around the building before they could get too far.

Well, he hoped anyway. It wasn't like there was a way to spot acutal burglars before they did anything.

Now that he thought about it... why did the guards not stop or help Nana? She looked absolutely miserable in the state she arrived in a few minutes ago, not that it has improved that much, but without all the blood it went from 'about to fall dead' to 'got beat up'.

Yama was knocked out of his thoughts when the man in the coat rushed up to Nana and placed down the bag he was holding with a clatter of tools and equipment.

He was about to move over fueled by the remnants of his adrenaline spike from when they arrived when the man preempted him upon seeing Yama's indecisive and hesitant figure in his peripheral vision.

"My name is Dai Hui, I'm one of the gym's doctors specializing in physical injuries, you need not be worried about my presence." Dai Hui curtly introduced himself as he swiftly inspected Nana's wounds with the ease and speed countless hours of experience provided him with.

Nana didn't resist his prodding either, still immersed in her previous fight. She sent him a glance when he arrived and didn't feel any sort of hostility nor intent to harm so she didn't really care either way.

15 minutes later Dai Hui was speechless, looking at the girl like she wasn't human, something that he was increasingly sure that she was not the longer he inspected her. Although it looked bad externally, the reason for the discoloration of the skin wasn't only due to the blood vessels on the surface of her soft skin tissue being broken, it was also because the blood in her body was circulating at an abnormally fast rate.

This lead to light bruising looked much, much worse than it actually was. Most bruises form when the small blood vessels near the skin's surface are broken by external force making blood leak out from the vessels, showing as a dark mark on the skin of the recipient until the body reabsorbs it.

However since the girl's blood was practically rushing through her with the force of a turbulent river, the blood was leaking much faster than it normally would darkening the color even further.

He was surprised it wasn't pitch black by now, and it would've been, if it wasn't for her body somehow reabsorbing it with what seemed like an extreme possessiveness. Even more surprising was that her small blood vessels have already slightly healed compared to when he first started his inspection, if her body kept this rate up she would probably be as good as new tomorrow morning in terms of bruising.

However, other than her bruises she still had a broken nose which he quickly re-aligned, not even surprised that the girl didn't even so much as grunt in pain, and put a plaster on. Next, he inspected the most common internal injuries and found that she had blood clots forming in one of her lungs, though even that was slowly, but still inhumanly fast compared to the average person, knitting itself back together.

Other than that he didn't really find much of anything else, most of her trembling body could actually be attributed to an extreme form of workout soreness. Although her muscle fibers were damaged by overexertion it unexpectedly wasn't to the point that they were completely torn apart, meaning that her body would naturally heal by itself and get stronger.

He was still a bit worried by the amount of tearing present in her muscle fibers though and made a mental note to check in on her the next morning just in case they suddenly snapped.

"How is it?" Yama asked in concern when he saw Dai Hui sigh lightly and start putting his equipment back into his bag.

"Honestly, not even close to as bad as I expected it to be. If nothing goes wrong, she will be mostly healed as soon as tomorrow. The girl's body is destroying already established scientific facts with the rate that she is recovering. If anyone else went through the same amount of punishment her body went through, I'd say they would be lucky if they could even operate normally after half a year of strict rest." Dai Hui reported as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Another monster had joined the roster of freaks of nature squatting in the gym.

Yama felt his heart skip a beat upon hearing the results while inwardly thanking his lucky stars that Nana was blessed with such a strong body, though it was a bit odd that it was seemingly growing more and more terrifying with time. He didn't think she recovered this fast when the two of them had just arrived at the gym so many years ago.

"Haa..." Jonah also breathed a sigh of relief hearing that Nana would heal just fine.

"Well, I will be coming back for a follow up inspection tomorrow morning just in case." Dai Hui sighed to himself as he stood up, giving them a small nod before walking out of the apartment. He still needed to fill out those forms properly, he was also mentally drained because of all the shocks the little girl constantly threw at him.

"I'm also heading out, my parents are probably worried by now. See ya later, Nana, Yama!" Jonah startled when he unintentionally glanced at the time and saw that it was approaching 22:00, hopefully his mom wouldn't kill him for not notifying them about being out late.

After Jonah had rushed out of the apartment, Yama made sure to close the door this time and locked it properly. When he returned to the kitchen island he blinked in confusion as Nana who was sitting there just a few seconds ago had disappeared.

Looking around the living room and not seeing her, he was just about to go check her room when he heard the sound of the shower turning on.

"...It seems Sam's efforts in getting her to wash up after a session in the gym really stuck." Yama muttered to himself.

---

A few minutes later a newly showered Nana sat on the bed in her room with the vr console placed in front of her in thought. Sam had told her that spending time in the 'other world' could probably substitute for sleep, and since she could be as active as she wanted inside the digital world, didn't that mean that she could effectively remove the few hours of downtime her body required to function in optimal condition entirely?

"Hmm..." Nana idly tilted her head while humming to herself. It was worth a try atleast, right?

Nodding to herself in approval she pressed the button on top where the lines converged.