: Existential Revelation

Kusana twisted and turned in his bed uncomfortably.

It had been almost six months since he had started training with Kamino. She made a schedule for him to do, and Kusana was fairly sure she monitored every move he made.

Kamino was an odd person who acted mainly like a robot. She displayed no emotion in her words or movements. If it was in her face, you couldn't tell because of the demon mask she wore and her hair covering her eyes. Kusana was unsure how she even saw because he never caught a glimpse of her eyes.

Kamino had never mistreated him outside of training. Every time he made a step out of line or an incorrect stance, she would kick him or hit him with a wood stick. She taught Kusana how to disarm multiple types of weapons, whether it was with the meteor hammer or with his hands.

The main things Kusana was taught was endurance and fighting. Sometimes Kusana has to stand in an ice-cold bath completely naked(He doesn't know how he hasn't caught a cold yet) and was taught how to take punches. Kamino was clearly holding back in all of the training or else Kusana would be dead the moment they decided to fight.

The combat prowess of Kamino was unmeasurable. She never had to walk anywhere, she just vanished and reappeared as if she were teleporting. It reminded Kusana of a game he used to play. Every time they dashed in the game, they would disappear during the duration of the dash.

Since Kusana was around the age of eighteen, he was on the last cusps of puberty. He was beginning to get a more manly and rigid face, but even then, he was still easily topped by Kamino. Their relationship was odd, to say the least. Kusana never asked questions unless he was genuinely confused about Kamino's orders.

Kamino had recently given him the privilege of having something to do while he was in the cell. Since Kusana loved reading, she let him have two books of his choice. For some reason, the books confused him.

The first was a history/philosophy book. It followed a soldier in a war in the eastern part of the world. Except Kusana had never heard of anything listed in the book. Did she trick him and give him a fictional book? The countries, the battles, the people involved and even the military practices made zero sense to Kusana.

Kusana was in the middle of an extreme crisis, so he decided to get a general world history book as his next one. It essentially explained all of the major events in history. The events listed in the book only went up to around the 1990s, which made no sense to Kusana. The books from Kusana's country reached up to the 2400s, or the current time period.

Kusana scratched his head in thought. His entire worldview was falling in shambles. Who was the real faker? Could it be Kamino who bought him an old book? It didn't seem to be the case because the book was in very good condition.

Thankfully, the book showed a map after every major change in land. Kusana checked the most recent world map and didn't even recognize the structure of the continents that well. Continents like "Yorbia", "Azia" and "Begerosse Union" were never on his maps in school.

Despite Kamino's oddly extreme efficiency in every task performed, Kusana didn't believe she could produce two entire books with similar events and descriptions within days. Even then, it messed up Kusana's head. It defied common sense.

Kusana tried to remember what had happened before he ended up here. He was at his job, went out on a walk during his break and then… then… A nap? Kusana was unsure if he actually took a nap. He didn't remember ever laying down or feeling tired enough to take a nap. Kusana was breaking his brain trying to remember it, so he simply stopped. He had willpower training today, and he couldn't be wavering like that.

After a few minutes of Kusana sorting out his thoughts, Kamino walked in at the normal time. She walked over to his cell door and opened it. During his time here, Kusana knew her actions had no hidden meaning. If she opens the door, she wants you to go through it.

Kusana was blindfolded once more and led around the building. It was actually a small training for him, being able to use his other senses to follow someone when you can't see them. After the first month, Kamino told him she wouldn't be repeatedly making noises for him to follow. She was just going to walk and Kusana would have to hope he could follow.

Even after a long period of time, he wasn't perfect at it and bumped into a wall or two. This seemed to be a particularly good day since he didn't bump into anything. Kusana took off his blindfold and looked around once more. Now, they were in a large forested area. Kusana would have thought they were outside if it weren't for the giant glass dome above them.

Kusana only saw a blinding light past the glass. The entire forest was very well lit, there only being a few places to take shade from different blinding lights. Kusana didn't know what kind of money that Kamino had, but she clearly wasn't some average Joe with powers.

"I will give you a schedule for the daily activities you will need to do in this facility. I will let you out when I deem you worthy of being put back in your cell. Do you understand?" Kusana knew better than to give a snarky retort to Kamino.

"Yes ma'am." Kamino did her vanishing act once again, but a thin stone tablet was left in her place. Inscribed onto it was a set of instructions.

1. Never let this stone tablet break or be broken.

2. Never craft a tool or weapon, including using the stone tablet.

3. Stand directly under the waterfall for 1 hour and stand in a horse-riding position.

4. After enduring the waterfall, hit a tree 500 times.

5. After punching the tree, run one lap around the facility.

6. Cook food using only the listed plants and anything else you deem edible.

After the directions was a list of plants and a little picture of them. Kusana had no idea what any of this meant. He had many speculations. First, why did he feel an alluring scent from the stone tablet? Kusana could easily resist it, but it was enticing.

Second, he understood the part about crafting tools being a test of his skills, but why the weapon? Was there some kind of predator in here? Kusana assumed not, since in the last direction it said that he could use anything he deemed edible. So it most likely meant some kind of critter.

That was mostly all of the speculations he had. Kusana noticed a small satchel only big enough to house the tablet. He used his common sense and knew it was for the tablet, so he put it in the satchel and began looking for the waterfall.