La Préparation (Training)

The sound of a fist breaking one’s nose echoed throughout the wastelands of the Land of Shadows. “Oi, I think a accidentally killed this one eh.” A man said as he looked down at the unconscious man on the floor, whom was filled with bruises and wounds, most notable his stomach. Letting out a sigh the man who had been watching the brawl slowly made his way over as he carefully avoided the litter of bodies at his feet. “What about you Jean? You found anything we can take?” The man only known as Stern said as he directed the question to the young Mikaboshi who was standing in the middle of pile of corpses. Being a Mikaboshi meant he had to fight for something the day he was born, whether it was a sibling whom wanted to suck his mother’s breast before he had his chance or some random bishamon who popped up and sudden wigged the fuck out, so he always had to be on his toes. It was at the age of eight where he had first killed someone and even then it felt as natural as breathing, why did it? Because they were monsters, mercenaries who trampled on whomever the fuck they wanted, because they were Mikaboshi.

“No.” He said plainly as he sat on one of bodies. Today’s mission was quite the challenging one, they were ordered to find and rough up a couple of bandits that had been terrorizing some Lord’s daughter, but it turned into something much much worse. You see someone had seen them coming, how they didn’t know but when the three men and woman made their way to the valley where they had their hideout; they were ambushed by what had seemed to be the entire clique of bandits, luckily for them however they were just a group of Neanderthals with no real skill but sadly one of their members were grievously injured and had their Amatsu destroyed.  “Looks like we won huh?” Amanda said painfully coughing up blood periodically. There wasn’t much any of them could’ve done for the young woman as the only one who had medical knowledge was in fact Amanda but she was in no way, shape or form to do anything about the wound she currently had. “Yeah, it could’ve been a thousand of them we still would’ve been em, though it seems we actually failed this mission as Pierre and Jean killed some of them, well Pierre only killed one, Jean killed everyone who approached him basically.” The man called Stern said calmly as he sat beside the torso of his childhood companion. “I swear he reminds me exactly like you when we were kids, hotheaded, bold, untrustworthy, all the great things that make a great Mikaboshi.” Her breathing had gotten heavier and every third word she had coughed up blood but Pierre and Stern had nothing but a composed look on their face as they watched the woman cling to what was left of her life on this world, after all they had seen this scene way too many times. In the beginning they were a group of ten elite Mikaboshi whom were trying to make a name for themselves but now they were just down to four, well two since one is about to die and the other is just the leader’s kid. Jean however just sat on the pile of dead bodies waiting for the woman to die so they can get out of this god forsaken place. The three remaining Amatsu, Zammi, Xues and La Croix had all been covering near the remains of one of their own, whom was a dear friend of theirs, which had shown that Amatsu were indeed unique weapons. “Hey… Stern, do you think I’ll be able to see Ash again?”Amanda said softly as she began drifting into nothingness. “Yeah and when you do tell em I said that I need that xel he borrowed from me.” Though those words fell on deaf ears as Amanda had already passed away. “Fuck!”Pierre spat angrily as he kicked the nearest body to him. Although he had a calm expression he was tired, tired of seeing his friends die one by one, first his best friend and now Amanda, was this the life they were fated to live? “Calm down Pierre. Come Xues.” He said in one breath as his Amatsu came to his call like a dog to its master, no words were spoken however as the Amatsu already knew what to do as it performed this ritual ever so often. The first task was the removal of Amanda’s mark, as they didn’t want the power of the Mikaboshi to fall into anyone’s hands. Turning into a surgical knife, Stern would cut off her hand from the wrist and tossed it to Pierre where he would store it into his Amatsu, Zammi. After that was complete Xues would turn into a shovel and dug a six foot hole and lowered her remains within it. Though it wasn’t a proper burial in ordinary people’s standards this how they lived, where ever one died that’s where they would bury them, the way of the warrior. “I hope you find peace my friend.” Stern muttered softly as he watched his Amatsu throw dirt on the face of the woman whom was once his most trusted ally. “Now that that’s settle, let’s go and report this back to that Lord, after what happened here he better pay us double. Let’s go Jean.” He called out to the thirteen year old who was quite relieved that it was finally over with, though Amanda did take care of him when he was younger he didn’t truly care much for her, or anybody else for that matter that was just the kind of person life had molded him to be. “Let’s go La Croix.” He said plainly calling out to his Amatsu who was still hovering over the remains of the fallen Amatsu, Babylon which she was the closest too. Heading her master’s call she would slowly hover towards him as they left the land of the dead.

His eyes slowly crept open revealing the ceiling that was above him. When they had arrived at the Lord’s manner with the news of what had happened, the Lord had immediately paid them over the agreed sum of money and apologized for three hours straight and allowed them to spend the night at one of his safe houses before their trip back to the Land of Madness. “La Croix…” Jean muttered as he sat up on the bed. It had seemed that the damned Amatsu had wondered off yet again so now he was alone in the dead of night. Pushing himself off the bed he would sat on his two feet and threw on some old clothes he found laying around and exited the safe house and made his way through the Lord’s territory slowly at first but then he decided to start jogging. He didn’t know what he would do today, but he ran as if he was ready for something big. His determination seemed over the limit as he dashed through The Land of Graves \. As he ran, the wind brushed against his face and after travelling for 7 minutes he reached a steep hill. He wanted to see the view of the lords Manor and everything around it so he walked up the hill. He stood at the top of a hill, somewhere outside of manor. He was pretty confident about his current speed, after all it kept him alive until now but he still wanted to increase his speed, he wasn’t the fastest of shinobi and he wanted to at least be able to keep up with some of the faster shinobi, namely his father, at the very least the ones around his age group. This was the perfect place to do that, out in the open with a large hill to help him train his leg muscles.

He quickly started running down the hill, going even faster due to the momentum of traveling at a downward pace from the top of the hill all the way to the bottom of the large hill. His feet hit the ground hard with each step, crushing the small blades of grass that covered the hill. It was somewhat difficult to stay balanced on the hill, but using chakra in his feet he was able to strike the ground with each step and not go tumbling down to the bottom and landing on his face. Before he knew it he was at the bottom of the hill, and continued traveling. He put emphasis on each step he took, nearly stomping his feet on the ground as a way to make his legs have to do more, his muscles constricting more than usual and having to exert more energy than they normal would be required to do for such a simple task as running. It may have slowed him down some to stomp his feet down as he ran, but it was going to pay off. He slowly but surely got more adjusted to the harder steps. He got about half way down until his stopped in his tracks; he wanted to test out the steepness of the hill to see what muscle group he would have to use the most.
Turning back around he pivoted on his left foot to face the hill he had come back down from. Now he’d test himself out to see how much easier and faster it would be to run like normal. He dashed down the hill at a normal pace but he was still collecting momentum he didn’t stomp his feet into ground; more so, he simply made quick light steps off the ground to make himself dart across the ground faster than before. He pumped his arms up and down from his side up to his chest, going as fast as he could possibly get his leg muscles to allow him. As he reached the base of the large hill, he realized why he had picked the hill. With its steep incline and large size, the strain it would put on his muscles to run up the side of it would be intense. This was definitely going to help him develop a larger amount of speed to use. He faced the large hill and made his way up the hill. At first he slowed down rather abruptly, obviously it was not by his choice though, it was definitely much more difficult to dart up the hill rather than simply run down it. The incline had forced him to strain himself just move at a fast walking type of pace. He could barely muster the type of muscle power that would be required to run up such a steep and long type of incline.

As he strained his way to the top of the hill, he inhaled and exhaled deeply, it wasn’t as easy as it would appear to be. It wouldn’t have been a challenge for the faster and more agile shinobi of his clan, and of all the villages. Once he got up half way he turned around and dashed back down the hill, he felt himself going faster than before, his legs not feeling quite so sore, but they were sore enough to make it hard to control his decent down the hill, nearly tripped and going into a full rolling tumble down the large and steep hill. He was able to reach the end of the hill without much because of the adrenaline but as he looked back up at the hilltop he felt hesitation from his legs being intensely sore.

He dashed back up the hill, ignoring the stressful feeling it put on his legs and pushing past the pain of the lactic acid build up in his leg muscles from the strain of running up the steep incline. He had no intentions of letting his body get the best of him; it was all a matter of holding himself to the idea of ‘mind over matter’ in order to push himself to truly get faster. He continued to go through the routine of running down the side of the large and steep hill and then going right back up the steep incline of the hill, continuing to train his leg muscles and increase his base speed. He knew that it wouldn't take much more for him to truly be able to keep pace with some of the faster shinobi. He practiced the same training over and over again for hours, until his body would almost collapse. On his third 10th time reaching the bottom of the hill, he legs gave out and he fell to the ground. The pain in his body was in more pain now, and he could barely move them. He tried to get up but it was no use. He layed there for 10 minutes hoping that soon he would get the feeling back in his legs. He couldn’t tell how much strain he was putting on his legs because of the adrenaline he was experiencing, but now that he was relaxing the pain struck him like a school bus. After a good 30 minutes he could finally get up, it wasn’t normal for shinobi to be putting this much stress on their legs but he didn’t care. The pain felt good to him.

He got up and faced the hill; he wanted to do it one more time. He wanted to run up one more time, he knew he could. He moved his right leg forward but the pain began to sting. The soreness in his legs began to affect his movement.  

“Tsk I need to go faster.” he yelled to himself over and over again until he finally got the balls to overcome the pain in his legs. He started to move up the hill slowly hoping that somehow he would get his energy back but it was no use. He fell to his knees. Was this his limit? “Damnit! I can’t give up now! One more time! One more fucking time!!” Suddenly his eyes opened wide, and he felt a sudden jolt of energy. He got up like a man and looked at the hill and said “I won’t falter here.”

He dashed up the mountain using all of his strength his legs moved up and down as did his arms. He was using all of his energy, he wasn’t going at a fast speed but he was going good enough. As he was running he could feel the burn in his thighs and he could feel himself getting faster. He stomped with each step he took, because he couldn’t move lightly or he would lose his balance. He was three fourths up the hill until his legs gave out. He dropped to his knees and started to roll down the hill. He caught on to a branch from a tree that was on the hill and pulled himself up. Not minding the pain in his legs, he got right back up and started to dash again. “ There is no way I am giving up now” he told himself. I almost there. He ran and ran and finally he got to the top of the hill. He immediately flopped to the ground with his face in the grass. His legs were definitely not moving for a while, but he didn’t care. He kept his self rule and accomplished something most shinobi could. He turned over on his back, and stared up at the sky. His eyes were beginning to close slowly as his mind started to drift away. His legs were shaking and the veins in his thighs were popping out like crazy, his legs were covered in blue. His put his hands behind his back to support his head. He closed his eyes and went into a peaceful nap.

“Oy, Oy, Franny-nii!!! Walk up Franny-nii!!!” A high pitched female voice echoed throughout his ears, why can’t he get some sleep? Opening his eyes they would land on a little girl with a bow tie over her left eye. “What is it, La Croix?” He said tiredly as he sat up and stared at the young girl. This young loli was In deed this Amatsu whom had taken human form, well transformation. “Franny-nii I’ve been looking all over you just to find you here sleeping was the bed not good enough?” She said innocently as she clinged to his arm. Pushing off the clinging weapon he would stand on his two feet feeling a bit swore after his run. “Where were you when I was calling for you La Croix?” He said coldly as he glared at her. “Umm.. I sorta kinda, got lost” She said nervously as she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Useless as always. ” He said harshly as he shook his head. “Hey don’t be mean Franny-nii! But what are you doing up here anyways?” She said curiously as she looked around the hill. “I was taking a jog but now that you’re here I want to try that technique.” Turning around he staggered off into a direction where there was a big tree. “Umm, Franny-nii don’t you think you’re in too bad of a shape to be trying that?” She said as she followed behind him knowing that he would be doing trying it anyways. “If you won’t be helping me just go home.” Jean had his eyes set on a specific move ever since he had seen his father do a couple of times, Dark Fist: Thirty-Two Palms of Death. Stretching his limbs he would take a deep breath and took his stance. “Two palms!” He yelled as he stuck the tree with his index and his middle finger, striking it twice. As he attempted to carry out the second consecutive strikes he had fallen to his knees as the pain from before had quickly resurfaced. “Franny-nii are you okay….” La Croix said with a worried look on her face. Ignoring the Amatsu’s concern he would raise up to his knees, he wasn’t going to lose to this. Mustering all his energy he began the technique was more. “Two palms.” He muttered tiredly as he strike the tree twice. “Four palms.” Turning clockwise he would strike the tree twice once more on a different location. As he struck the tree the bark off the tree would begin to peel off from it as he continued to strike it over and over again. “Thirty-Two Palms of Death!!!” He shouted as he attempted to finishe off the combo but failing. “Hehe, seems like I can’t yet.” With a smile on his face he would stagger towards the tree before falling on his face but thankfully La Croix had caught him. “Yosha, let’s go back now Franny-nii.” She said with a smile as she carried him back to the manor.

Lying on the bed with bandages wrapped all over his body due to La Croix’s terrible medical skills he let out a soft sigh wondering why he let her practice these things on him but it was mostly his fault as he allowed her to do whatever she wanted mot of times, she especially got away with calling him Franny, a shortening for François, but it was whatever she had been with him the day he was born and she would also fall with him when he died and in reality she was the only one person, well thing, he cared about.  At least she did a good job with applying the cream to ease his pain. Though he was pleased with his speed training he was quite disappointed that he was unable to complete that technique after attempting to learn it for the past couple of months now and each time he tried to La Croix had told him it was impossible and he still stubbornly attempted it and failed. Maybe it was indeed too soon for him. “Hi Hi! I’m back with food for the sicky Franny-chan!” She announced as she kicked open the door holding a bowl of soup. Though she was always an energetic air head he could tell that something was wrong, most likely she was still troubled about what had happened earlier to Amanda and Babylon for a weapon she was sure emotional. Sitting on the edge of the bed she would begin to make weird airplane noises as he began spoon feeding him, much to the annoyance of Jean but as usual he put up with her crap. “You know I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, so there is no need to treat me like this La Croix.” He said as he slowed the soup, it tasted great! Which made him know that she wasn’t the one that made the soup, after she was a weapon she couldn’t have a sense of taste. “Hehehe, seen right through me again huh Franny-nii.” Letting out a soft sigh she would set the bowl of soup on the table and climbed up on top of him resting her head on his chest. “It use to be so many of us, now it’s just Zammi and Xues we’ve been losing friends like every other day, I hate it.” Though she said we, in reality Jean didn’t lose anyone after all he didn’t care about those people but he knew she was hurting which by the way was still strange but he never did understood Amatsu. Anyways he would stroke her on the head and reassured her. “Even if everyone else kicks the bucket, we’ll always be together La Croix, I won’t die I plan on living forever.” “You promise?” She said softly as she looked up on him with wet eyes. “I never go back on my promises you should know this better than anyone else La Croix.” He said looking into her eyes. He had often wondered why his Amatsu had taken up this innocent persona which was completely different to his but maybe it was god’s way of saying she was playing his conscience, god knows she had gotten into his way many many times. But in truth he had gained tired of this life and yearned for something more stable maybe a village life perhaps? Though he doubt his mother will let him go anytime soon and he was a part of his father’s mercenaries so maybe this was nothing but a fantasy. “Say Franny-nii, do you think we could go and visit everyone some day?” She said with a smile on her face, it seemed his words had cheered her up. “Sure, when I get strong enough we can go anywhere we want without anyone giving us shit.” He said as before releasing a soft yawn. With all that running he had been doing his body not only felt weak but tired as well and though she had been complaining about him pushing himself too much it had been a necessity, he had to get stronger by any means necessary, as long as it didn’t kill him of course.  “Hehe, I’ll help you to get stronger Franny-nii just count on me!” She said with a big smile on her face as she flexed her tiny arms. “Yeah I’m counting on you La Croix.” He said honestly as he drifted into deep sleep. Though she was quite shocked that he had actually said that he was indeed counting on her, she couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside, though there was nothing inside since she was a just an Amatsu. Slowly getting off him she would pull the covers over his body, took the half eaten bowl of soup up and switched off the lights. “Night, Night Franny-nii.” She said softly before kissing him on the cheek and headed out his room. With Franny asleep there was nothing else to do other than bother Zammi and Xues, though they might be asleep as well. Looking back at the room she just left she decided to just go do the dishes then come back and cuddle up with Franny.

Trained :

WC: 4044

wow, good job sir. Approved.