Thirteen
I opened my eyes to the early dawn light streaming through my window. The ache of fading bruises stung a bit, but it was less painful than the last ti. If anything I was more ntally tired than anything, as I had been practicing my Chakra training for well over a dozen hours straight in the Boundary. Unfortunately I had still not managed to make a breakthrough in terms of my Chakra nodes, however I felt that I could possibly see how a breakthrough could be made.
After doing a few stretches to loosen up my stiff muscles, I went to my computer. I didn’t feel fully rested, due to my long and action-packed trials in the Boundary overnight, but I could always grab a quick nap later. For now I needed to get things set in motion.
While I could feel myself being a lot stronger and faster, it was obvious to that this was purely down to the power I had gained from levelling up. It wasn’t actual muscle strength or training. If I was to do sothing about that, then I thought my performance would likely improve. Running a few internet searches on spear martial arts such as Sōjutsu, I turned up so interesting articles on using the spear in Chinese Bajiquan, as well as so schools of Sōjutsu such as Fuden Ryu and Saburi Ryu. There were also so western spear techniques, although most of those were more skewed to fighting in an infantry unit.
I continued to search, finding out information on which muscle groups were used in higher level spear combat, and then further searches were done on how to best train them. Several hours later I was on Amazon.jp looking at a shopping cart filled with weights and other muscle training equipnt. The price was making sad, though.
Am I sure I really want to do this? All this stuff is expensive, and while I can afford it due to all the extra work I’ve done recently, and the promise of more work to co through my old colleague, it will wipe out my extra earnings. Besides, I’ve never been a fan of sport and physical activities… it wasn’t that I hated sport, not really, I was just far more talented at artistic and intellectual endeavours. The fact that at our yearly town baseball matches, when I had been forced to participate I had sucked badly and been mocked for days afterwards each ti, didn’t help my liking any… My sister got all the energy and sporting talent in the family. Now if my sis had been the one chosen, she would have kicked that zombie's ass without any problems. Give her a bow and she’d have put an arrow through its head in a heartbeat…
“Oh to hell with it. I can always give the gear to her if I end up not using it.” With that I clicked on accept, and the order was placed for next-day delivery. It had been a very extraordinary week, equal parts exciting and terrifying. Still, I had the soul of an otaku, so I couldn’t deny that being one of the chosen ones and battling for power to save the world appealed to . If I was to decline, I would likely only end up regretting it later, especially if so of the other chosen ones turned out to be terrible people, greedy for power. If one of them ended up hurting my family, or Eri-chan, and I had the chance to stop them but didn’t take it… I shook my head, clearing those gloomy thoughts.
No, the safest course of action is to gather what power I can myself, and make all efforts to avoid getting myself hurt, or God forbid, killed! To that end, it is ti to bulk up and turn into a pro athlete! Won’t everyone be surprised when I next see my family?
Next up was my emails, and there was one from Hayato-san, with a schedule of expected delivery of the upcoming work he was outsourcing. It looked like a ton of debugging was going to be available in the next couple of days, so I could certainly start making headway on that, while Hina-chan and the others cracked on with the 3D modelling and background touch-ups. There were a few other emails of so importance, but nothing else I needed to deal with today.
Since I was free and my gym equipnt hadn’t arrived I moved on to the next stage of my levelling up plan. Visualisation seed to be the key to using both aether and the Chakra network, so I would search online for the best thods. I had quite a visual mind, being artistic and into design, so I was confident that with the right thod I could make headway on my difficulties opening the Chakra nodes.
It didn’t take too long to find a few usable ideas for increasing visualisation prowess online, and I quickly began to practice them. The one that I found the easiest was looking at an object, and then trying to rember and manipulate the image in my mind. This was probably due to my 3D work, which required good spatial awareness. As I continued with this for several hours I felt a slight prickling heat forming in the base of my body, faint but noticeable.
Once this feeling was fully ingrained in I returned to my thods of trying to stimulate the Chakras. It was definitely easier to imagine and feel the flow, prickling heat building, but it was still like trying to push syrup through a straw. I could definitely feel the heat building a little, a tiny few prickles even flowing higher up my body. Wiping sweat from my brow I opened my eyes and went to the fridge to get a drink.
“This is pretty hard. I guess those who had their nodes forcibly opened would not have to go through this, but if they have no room to grow then eventually I’d surpass them if I train enough…”
Having done enough ntal exercises that I felt drained, it was ti to move to physical conditioning. I would go for a jog, the first ti since… well damn, surely since school. Changing my clothes to sothing more suitable I left the apartnt, ready to work up a sweat…
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My jog took around the surrounding areas. This quiet suburb didn’t have very many sights, just a load of two or three story apartnt blocks, a few small shops and a shrine high on the hill. I jogged up the hill to the shrine, feeling slightly out of breath. My muscles were feeling pleasantly strained, and I was starting to feel the appeal of exercise.
Of course, if I didn’t have this power from the Boundary I would have collapsed long ago. It really is the shortcut to self-improvent.
I admired the torii gates at the shrine entrance. Behind them was a large set of carvings resembling snakes. There was also the usual array of shrine buildings, and set further back in the trees crowning the hill was a couple of large outbuildings that served as quarters for the shrine priest. It was quite picturesque, although not everyone was keen on snakes. I like them way better than dogs though… Taking in the view for a few monts I steeled myself and then jogged down the hill, running beside the wide stream that ca from the foothills and flowed down towards the Tokyo outskirts proper.
Reaching the bottom I crossed the sowhat ornate red tal bridge that spanned the river, pausing halfway to look back up the hill. My breath was coming fast, yet I still felt I had more energy remaining. With a final burst of energy I ran the last kilotre back to my dwelling at a sprint, only staggering to a halt when I reached my apartnt building.
Sweat was dripping from now, and even in the cooling heat of the evening I felt warm. My muscles were definitely feeling the pain now, hot and tight. I was pretty impressed by my performance, despite all that. Sure, it wasn’t going to set any records, but it was certainly well above what an average person could do. With speed and endurance like that, I could probably join a local track team or sothing…
As I mounted the stairs to my room I saw that soone else was out on her balcony, face flushed in the fading light of the evening. A rather impressive selection of empty beer cans was scattered about her feet, along with a full ashtray. When she saw looking, she raised one eyebrow and spoke.
“Oshiro-kun… wasn’t it? I didn’t take you for one who worked out.” She took another swig of beer from a freshly opened can, and smiled at sowhat mockingly, I felt.
“I’ve just got into it recently…” I said politely, wracking my brains for her na. I had only spoken with her a couple of tis in the past, and while we saw each other in passing as we ca and went that was the only contact we had with each other. “… Watanabe-chan…” I ventured, rembering her na. “A bit early in the evening for hitting the beer so hard isn’t it?”
Watanabe-chan let out a dry laugh, snorting with amusent. “Chan, huh? You do have good manners, that’s for sure. Do you want a drink with ? I wouldn’t say it is too early, not with the day I’ve had.”
Watanabe-chan raised a can of beer to offer , droplets of condensation sliding down the sides. A cold beer after a hot workout did seem tempting. She was watching , so I examined her a bit more closely. She was possibly in her thirties, though telling a woman’s age was difficult for . She was wearing a business suit, dark charcoal blazer over a white blouse, and pencil skirt to match. The heat of the evening sun had caused her to sweat, saring the makeup around her eyes, giving her a sad look. Her hair was pulled into a tight black bun, held in place with a pair of silver hairpins. I suddenly flushed a little, as I could see the outline of her bra through her shirt which was going transparent with sweat. Looking away, I coughed to ease the tension.
“Sure, I’ll have a cold one.” I agreed, feeling embarrassed.
“Aren’t you the shy one. How unexpected.” she giggled, amused by my behaviour. I moved over to her and leaned against the wall, taking a sip of the beer. It was refreshing and cold, just what I had needed.
“So, what’s the cause of this impromptu party?” I asked, taking another gulp of beer.
“Oh, work troubles. Man troubles. Just trouble.” She said with a sigh, lighting up another cigarette. “My boss at work… he’s really been chewing us all out recently, and it’s starting to stress out. It’s hardly our fault he’s going bald and getting divorced.” she said with so venom, clearly angry. “Does he think I really want to be working at his dead-end company at my ti of life? It’s hardly going to help land a man is it?” She chased her cigarrete with more beer and let out a rather unladylike belch. “Excuse . Anyway, my boss said…”
I listened to her for a while, nodding sympathetically when required. Before I knew it I had polished off a couple of beers and she was still going.
“Let tell you, having a good job is the foundation of happiness. If you have a terrible boss and crummy co-workers, then every day is miserable.”
“Well, I’m a freelancer myself for now.” I answered her. “But I’m building up a client base, so hopefully soon I can get steady employnt.”
“Make sure you do. Nothing is sadder than being stuck in a dead-end job. Well, other than being single. Where have all the good n gone?”
This was a dangerous subject, so I thought I’d change it. “Hashimoto-san from a couple of rooms over was having trouble as well. Daughter troubles, I think he said. I guess we all have problems.”
“Hashimoto-san huh?” Watanabe-chan snorted. “He’s a deadbeat as far as I can tell, no wonder his daughter is ashad of him. Still, even he must have had a wife at one point… why is it so hard…?”
I listened to Watanabe for another hour or so as she unloaded. In the end I bade her farewell with the promise of repaying her for the drinks at so point in the future. Hopefully that won’t involve too much trouble. If I have to take her out to a pub she’d eat alive. She was looking pretty hungry at the end there…
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