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Chapter 70: Second Step
After swimming desperately for thirty excruciating minutes, Bell finally reached the shoreline.
"Haa… Haa…!?"
He dragged himself up the rocky beach and collapsed face-first into the dirt, gasping for air.
N-Now I understand… what Tsuna meant about regretting this…!? The training had barely begun, and Bell was already at death's door. Tsuna's cryptic warnings now made perfect, terrifying sense.
"What are you doing slacking off!?"
"Gah!?"
Reborn ruthlessly kicked the utterly exhausted Bell in the ribs, sending him tumbling right back into the shallow water.
"You're the one who said you wanted to get stronger. Go back out there and beat them."
"No!! That's impossible!!"
"Then do it with your dying will."
"W-Wait!? Just wait a sec—!?"
"Die once and be reborn."
Reborn mercilessly fired another Dying Will Bullet point-blank into Bell's forehead. With a draw speed of less than 0.05 seconds, Bell couldn't even blink before the bullet struck him.
"REBORN!! I'LL DEFEAT THE MONSTERS WITH MY DYING WILL!!"
Re-entering Dying Will Mode, Bell roared and charged back into the ocean to face the monsters bare-handed.
.....
Having survived his bout with the sea monsters, Bell dragged himself out of the water once more.
"I-I took them down…"
Thanks to the power of the Dying Will Bullet, Bell had somehow managed to clear the area. He reported back to Reborn, his face looking like a corpse.
"Good. That concludes the warm-up."
"W-Warm-up…!?"
Learning that the hell he had just endured was merely a warm-up, Bell froze in place, overcome by absolute despair.
"Right. Next, we head for the mountains."
Ignoring Bell's shattered spirit, Reborn fired another Dying Will Bullet into his head.
.....
Transported by his own Dying Will, Bell found himself in an entirely new location.
"Where am I!?"
His Dying Will Mode wore off, and Bell snapped back to his senses. This time, he was clinging to the side of a massive cliff face, hundreds of meters above the ground.
"Next up is cliff climbing."
Why are you dressed like my Goddess!? And when did you even change!? Hanging from a rope beside him was Reborn—now inexplicably wearing Hestia's signature white dress, complete with the blue ribbon and a black twin-tail wig. Bell screamed internally, utterly bewildered by the sudden cosplay.
"By the way, there are monsters flying around this area too, so keep your eyes peeled."
"Eh!?"
At Reborn's warning, Bell frantically scanned his surroundings. High above, several avian monsters were circling the thermals. They hadn't noticed him yet, but the moment they did, he'd become bird feed.
"Well then, climb with your dying will."
Reborn casually pulled himself up the rope and disappeared over the ledge.
I need to hurry!! Faster!! Because he was climbing a sheer cliff, both of his hands were occupied. If he didn't reach the top quickly, the monsters would spot him and dive-bomb him while he was defenseless. Realizing that one wrong move meant plummeting to his death, Bell scrambled up the rocks.
But his desperate prayers went unanswered. A bird monster spotted him and swooped in from his flank, talons extended.
"Firebolt!!"
"Gyaaaa!?"
Bell threw one hand out, aiming his palm at the beast, and unleashed his no-chant magic. The bolt of fire and lightning struck the monster dead-on, incinerating it instantly.
However—
"Oh cra—!?"
The sudden recoil and shifting of his weight caused the rock his left hand was gripping to crumble. Bell peeled off the cliff face and plummeted toward the earth.
"Firebolt!!"
Knowing that hitting the ground from this height would be fatal, Bell aimed a blast at the ground directly beneath him to cushion his fall.
But—
"Gah!?"
Even with a Falna, the raw kinetic impact couldn't be entirely neutralized. A violent shockwave of pain ripped through Bell's entire body as he slammed into the dirt.
"You let the monster distract you and completely forgot about your left hand. You'll never beat the Apollo Familia at this rate."
Now he's Miach-sama!? Why do you keep changing outfits!? Reborn, now dressed perfectly in Miach's attire, stood over him, casually pointing out his flaws. Bell was too confused by the wardrobe changes to even formulate a response.
"Still, that's a pretty handy power you've got. That what you call magic?"
"A… Yeah…"
"So, between that Falna and your magic, you can mitigate the damage from a lethal fall. Which means as long as you have the stamina to cast that spell, I can keep pumping Dying Will Bullets into you without any issues."
"Heh…!?"
Realizing that Bell's fall damage was drastically reduced, a truly sadistic smirk crept across Reborn's face. Hearing this twisted logic, Bell felt his soul leave his body.
"Die once and be reborn."
From that point on, Reborn relentlessly bombarded Bell with Dying Will Bullets, throwing him into one deadly scenario after another.
.....
Eventually, Day 1 of Reborn's hellish boot camp came to an end, mostly because Bell's physical stamina and mental energy (Mind) had completely bottomed out.
"Eat up. The training continues tomorrow."
"Y-Yes…"
Bell and Reborn sat around a campfire at the base of the cliff, roasting some wild beasts they had hunted in the forest. However, the sheer brutality of Reborn's regimen had left Bell looking visibly gaunt and hollow-eyed.
Now I know exactly why Tsuna is so strong… Bell had experienced firsthand the crucible that forged Tsuna's absurd power.
"You know, I had Tsuna do this exact same cliff-climbing routine too," Reborn mused, taking a bite of meat.
"Eh? Tsuna did this too?"
"Yeah. To build up his baseline stamina and help him master Hyper Dying Will Mode."
"Hyper Dying Will Mode?"
"That's the name of Tsuna's combat state."
So that's what it's called… Which means that form really isn't from a Falna… Learning the name of Tsuna's transformation confirmed what Bell had suspected: Tsuna already possessed that power long before he came to this world.
"Course, our world doesn't have monsters, so he was literally just climbing a cliff. But the bullet's effect would wear off halfway up, and he'd end up plummeting to the ground over and over again."
He really shot Tsuna with those bullets too!? "The biggest difference is that, unlike you guys, we don't have Falna in our world. Outside of his combat mode, Tsuna is literally no different from an average, completely normal civilian."
"Eeehhh!?"
Bell shouted in sheer disbelief. He couldn't fathom that someone with the physical frailty of a normal civilian had been subjected to the exact same life-threatening training he had just endured.
"More importantly, is your body holding up okay?" Reborn asked, suddenly serious.
"Eh? Well, I'm incredibly exhausted, but… why do you ask?"
"It's said that if a person is shot with a Dying Will Bullet ten times, something terrible happens to them."
"T-Terrible…!?"
"Yeah. They contract a fatal illness called the Skull Disease. The symptoms involve your deepest, most humiliating secrets manifesting as physical text all over your body right before you die. It's also known as the 'Death by Embarrassment Disease'."
"What the heck kind of disease is that!? Does something like that really exist!?"
The absurdity and sheer horror of the illness forced Bell to scream in protest.
"It does. Tsuna actually caught it once. By the way, I shot you exactly ten times today."
"Eh!?"
"And once the symptoms manifest, you die in exactly one hour."
"EEEEHHHH!?"
Realizing he had not only met the conditions for this horrifying disease but was also on a one-hour timer to his death, Bell shrieked in terror.
"So by all accounts, you should already be showing symptoms… but you look fine. Either you have some kind of natural resistance to the Skull Disease, or you're just incredibly lucky…"
"Ah…"
"Looks like you have an idea."
"Yes. When I Ranked Up, I acquired a Development Ability… It's an ability called Luck."
"I see. I brought this along just in case, but I guess you won't be needing it."
Without hesitation, Reborn casually tossed a small paper bag straight into the campfire.
"What is that!?"
"The prescription cure for the Skull Disease."
"What are you doing!?"
"You didn't catch it, so I figured we didn't need it."
"Of course we need it!! It's not guaranteed that I won't catch it later!!"
"Bell. People die eventually."
"Stop trying to dodge the issue!!"
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