The moment the training began, I understood just what kind of shit I had pulled myself into.
Let it be known that Maki Zenin didn't understand the meaning of the word holding back..., nor did she bother testing my limits gradually, because from the very first exchange, she closed the distance faster than I could properly react, her presence completely absent from my senses due to her lack of cursed energy, and the next thing I knew, I was already on the ground with the air knocked out of my lungs.
It was like fighting a ghost; tracking her with the eyes was a daunting task when even someone like Satoru Gojo failed in that area spectacularly. And he got the magic eyes for god's sake.
"Too slow," she said bluntly, not even giving me a second to recover before she gestured for me to get back up.
I forced myself to my feet, tightening the flow of cursed energy through my body as I reinforced my limbs, that one exchange was enough to tell me that I better bring my best to this supposed 'training' or else I'll be going back to Shoko's care in the medical wing faster than I came out of there.
So I did just that, put my game face on, treating this fight exactly like how I treated every fight back in Shibuya, with everything I had, life on the line.
Knowing that the speed gap was immense, I instead went to reinforce myself harder, trying to compensate for the sheer gap in skill and speed between us, but the moment I stepped forward again, she slipped past my guard like it didn't exist and struck me across the ribs, sending me skidding across the ground.
"Your stance is garbage," she continued, walking toward me casually as if she hadn't just nearly folded me in half. "You're overcommitting every time you move."
"You need to stop thinking before you move..."
'Ah... again with this...' I had a helpless smile on my face, she told me something similar back when we fought Jogo. I have yet to figure out what exactly she meant.
I coughed, pushing myself up again despite the protest of my body. "Honestly, I still don't quite get it, but that's why you're here, right? If it's wrong then just help me fix it..." I shot back, breath uneven but voice steady.
She clicked her tongue. "I am. You're just not learning fast enough."
"Sorry for being a disappointment, mom..." I shrugged. However, Maki didn't seem to like the joke, her face got a tad bit sharper at the comment.
'Did I unknowingly hit a nerve there?'
And then she moved, one second she was standing in front of me and the next she was right next to me, I only caught the movement as motion and hastily moved to guard or strike, I myself was uncertain, however she caught my arm mid-movement and twisted it just enough to throw me off completely before sweeping my legs out from under me.
I hit the ground again.
And again.
And again.
Each time, I got back up.
Pain spread through my body with every impact, bruises forming faster than I could keep track of, and more than once I felt something crack under the force of her blows, forcing me to momentarily use reverse cursed technique to mend the worst of the damage before diving back in, conserving as much energy as I could because I knew I couldn't afford to burn through it all.
My reverse cursed energy was not refined; it burned off too much cursed energy to heal. Well, it is technically supposed to be double by its very nature of the application, but it was a little too much for me that I could be relaxed using it as I pleased.
"This isn't a brawl," Maki said as she sidestepped another reckless punch from me, driving her elbow into my side with enough force to make my vision blur. "Think before you move."
'???...'
Wasn't she the one who told me I was thinking too much before I move?
I am starting to have a feeling I came to the wrong person to get trained. Strong fraudulent allegations were rising inside my heart now. What the hell, girl!
"I am thinking," I shot back, staggering but not falling.
"Then think better," she replied immediately, kicking my leg out and sending me crashing down once more.
I was lying flat on the ground, could only see her long smooth legs, her face which lacked any sweat half covered by her chest from this angle.
If only she was wearing a skirt but guess luck had to screw me over at every possible turn.
And then of course my eyes drifted at the increasingly darkening sky as I let out a sigh as reality sank in deep.
'I was a long way off from getting one over a monster like her,'
A monster of my own making if I say so myself...
"You done?" She asked, looking down on me with a bored expression on her face, though I could see that teasing smirk on her lower face, partially hidden by her breast.
Ah, at least I can be happy for the ungodly angle.
"Yeah you wish..." I replied irritably and poured a bit more reverse cursed energy into my system, only targeting the most important areas before getting up again.
Even if I get nothing out of this sadistic trainer, outside broken bones and shattered self-esteem of course, I was certain my RCT will level up through the roof at this rate.
By the time the sun had dipped below the horizon and darkness settled in, my body felt like it was barely holding together, every muscle screaming, every breath heavier than the last, yet I still forced myself to stand.
"You're still getting up," she noted, a hint of something almost like surprise in her voice now.
"Hehe...," I chuckled, wiping blood from my mouth as I steadied myself. "This is not nearly enough to keep me down."
She watched me for a second longer before raising her weapon again. "You're not even half there to what I faced back in Shibuya. If I were a quitter then I wouldn't have been standing here, madam..."
Even unknowingly, that same kind of smile started to reflect on my face which I once gave to both Jogo and Mahoraga.
The insane kind.
I survived being burned alive by Jogo, I somehow survived being completely crushed by Mahoraga...
There ain't no way I'm giving up here, that would be an insult to what I went through back then.
"Forget it... anymore and you're going back to Shoko's wing..." Maki snorted.
"Nah... I can do this all day," I smirked. Ignoring the pain, ignoring the exhaustion, I pushed everything I had and got up once again.
Slowly wiping the trail of blood under my nose, I exhaled slowly, and inhaled ignoring the body wracked with pain, it was deep and strong.
There is no way I can win this spar, winning for the first time wasn't the point, how quaint, right!
But.
One hit.
I'm not ending this until I land at least one hit on this sadistic woman.
Maki just saw me getting up for god knows how many times it was now, silently and just observed. My ragged breathing, uneven posture and wounds of course.
'He is pushing himself too much...' even she knew it. However, she has seen stubbornness before, she herself was the worst outlier of the trait.
So she knew the boy wouldn't go down until he at least was satisfied or she completely knocked him out.
'How troublesome...' she grumbled to herself, but the smirk on the side of her lips curled up just a tad bit more.
And with that, we entered into that final exchange of our today's training, my focus narrowing entirely on her movements, on the way she shifted her weight, on the smallest openings she left behind, and for the first time since we started, I didn't rush blindly.
I waited.
'Let the body do the thinking was it?'
And so, when the moment came, I moved. Just when she was right in front of me. I still couldn't track her movement completely, she was all but a blur to me. However, I caught the blur and formed how she might move.
After getting hit the number of times I have, even a monkey would figure out how the possible attack might come from.
So, I didn't rely on my eyes, but once again fell back to that instinct which had kept me alive so far and punched where I predicted she would be.
To my utter disbelief and relief, my fist connected.
Time itself seemed to slow down just then, and for a split second, everything felt… different. A rush of adrenaline shot up to my brain, a feeling I was quite accustomed to by now.
The world seemed to snap into place as my cursed energy surged, turning black.
Black lightning sparked up, to even my shock, folding the very space between my fist and her.
It was a Black Flash.
Maki had already blocked the punch of course, she was a lot faster than me, but it didn't matter when the delivered force was so much that even she couldn't tank it.
She was thrown back, around five steps, landing on her legs but the disbelief was evident on her face by the almost smoking patch of skin on her arm which blocked the sparks of black.
Her eyes were locked onto me like she did not expect this out of everything. Eyes wide and face for the first time not calm anymore.
And that was when realisation hit me.
"Oh shit..."
My eyes widened immediately as I staggered back, the adrenaline fading just enough for panic to set in. "Wait—" I started, my voice rough. "I didn't—"
I took a step forward, guilt hitting harder than any of her blows had. I really didn't mean to do that, it just happened.
"I'm sorry," I said quickly, breathing uneven. "I really didn't mean to hit you with that, it just happened—"
For a moment, Maki didn't respond.
Then she straightened, rolling her shoulder slightly as if testing it, before looking at me with something new in her expression.
"…Well, it seems like you'll fit right in with us," she said with an unknowing grin which I couldn't quite place.
"Tomorrow morning at 7, don't be late." She casually said, flicking her ponytail backwards as she turned around and left with almost deliberate swings to her hips that I felt she was doing with intention.
I shook my head, I didn't even have energy left to stare, I just let my body fall back down, not planning on moving until I caught my breath.
"Anymore of this world and I might just go insane for real!"
xXx
A/N : Well, you guys didn't think that his suffering end just cause he was out of danger, did you!
But that doesn't mean he will be suffering that earlier, if anything he will get stronger from now on.
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