The only thing Nozomi could not shake is the cold. Where she stood did not offer the polite chill of high Kumo mornings, but the kind of chill that bites down into bone and turns breath to glass. Rei and Nozomi are currently high above the village proper, on a narrow stone ledge carved into the side of the mountain. Wind clawed past them, tearing at hair and clothes. The whole world she knew was barely even visible beneath the clouds that suffocated vision up here. It served as a constant reminder of just how far she had already come. The mountain here held a steep stair cut into the rock that climbed and climbed until it vanished into mist. They made camp here in an out cove and it served as her training ground.
'Again!'
She snapped awake in fright. Even in her dreams Rei's commands clung to her psyche. The sun was rising and she knew that she must make it to the top of the stairs before Rei or she would be forced to do it again. She was allowed no chakra, no clay, just muscle and a healthy dose of stubbornness. It was the first time in the near month they had spent that she arrived to the top first. Upon arrival, she did not hesitate to grab a narrow wooden bar that had been pushed into the rock by her teacher. By the time she lifted herself once Rei was present but made herself unknown. Repetition was the point. It was a thing that built over time and taught a lesson to the point that it was instinct and no longer required active thought. Nozomi had been broken and rebuilt over this time already, but today would be a culmination, proof that she had what it takes.
Nozomi lifted herself as well as the weights placed within each of her pouches and backpack forty times. Each time she lifted herself stung her muscles harder than the last, and yet she would hold each count for five seconds at the top before letting herself drop. There was no wasted motion, her core and upper body held until the thirty-seventh rep. Her hand slipped just a fraction as blood gushed from a callous that split open from the pressure. She inhaled too much cold air and it stung her lungs, she was going to die if she fell. All of the words Rei had spoken previously flooded back to memory.
'Again... Your elbows flare. Your grip weakens.'
'Again... That's wasted motion. Refuse to give up.'
'Again!'
With strangled breath she managed to pull her chin over the bar, shoulders screaming, her core locks. For a heartbeat she holds here at the top. She thinks how this is thirty eigh... No. There are just two more.
'Again... Struggle to feel pain. Pain is Data.'
'Again!'
With tears dripping down her face she struggled for the last two reps and held herself at the very end. At this point she knew Rei must be watching, and so she held.
"Forty."
Nozomi swung herself to safety at the word from her teacher and her body trembled as the pain roared in her ears. She lifted herself up as her legs shook and her arms felt like pieces of meat.
"You have hit the minimum acceptable level to continue. Congratulations."
The words both felt like praise and a stab through the heart.
Rei stepped forward and tossed Nozomi a canteen. Even the metal container felt painfully cold against her torn-up hands. Nozomi drank only in measured sips, she had already learned the cost of drinking too fast. Everything with Rei was a lesson and Nozomi has learned that everything has a cost. As she drank, her breathing slowly leveled out. Her mind, rattled by exertion, began to clear. Rei’s gaze was on her, always gathering data. She observed the tremor in Nozomi’s arms, the tension in her shoulders, the way exhaustion pulled her spine inward. Rei never said so aloud, but Nozomi was beginning to truly understand the structure of her teachers thinking. Rei read bodies the way others read scrolls. Muscle fatigue, breath patterns, and pain tolerance are lines of text in a language Rei was fluent in. The training Nozomi endured was not merely physical, it was diagnostic.
When Nozomi finally stood again, even with the world tilting faintly around her, she moved toward the edge. The village could barely be seen spread below them, a cluster of lights and metal that through the clouds and distance seemed like a world away. Almost a fragile thing from this vantage point. She still heard the question in her head, the one Rei posed to her the first day she agreed to follow this training.
'Why are you here?'
It was something she answered with every bead of sweat and still she struggled with it. Why was she here as a Ryuu girl whose blood promised brilliance and ruin in equal measure? The truth lived in Nozomi’s own thoughts only as she still had not yet manifested the words. At least not until now. Exhaling, she would turn back towards Rei and answer the question that rang in her head.
"I am here because I can become something dangerous and precise. I intend to survive this curse and not break to it. I struggle to become a weapon for the village that can think, adapt, and bend the battlefield with strategy rather than raw talent or instinct. I am here to survive and to ensure others have the same luxury."
[WC: 929, Marked for Training]
[Part 1 of future Kinjutsu Application. Parts 2+ coming soon.]
'Again!'
She snapped awake in fright. Even in her dreams Rei's commands clung to her psyche. The sun was rising and she knew that she must make it to the top of the stairs before Rei or she would be forced to do it again. She was allowed no chakra, no clay, just muscle and a healthy dose of stubbornness. It was the first time in the near month they had spent that she arrived to the top first. Upon arrival, she did not hesitate to grab a narrow wooden bar that had been pushed into the rock by her teacher. By the time she lifted herself once Rei was present but made herself unknown. Repetition was the point. It was a thing that built over time and taught a lesson to the point that it was instinct and no longer required active thought. Nozomi had been broken and rebuilt over this time already, but today would be a culmination, proof that she had what it takes.
Nozomi lifted herself as well as the weights placed within each of her pouches and backpack forty times. Each time she lifted herself stung her muscles harder than the last, and yet she would hold each count for five seconds at the top before letting herself drop. There was no wasted motion, her core and upper body held until the thirty-seventh rep. Her hand slipped just a fraction as blood gushed from a callous that split open from the pressure. She inhaled too much cold air and it stung her lungs, she was going to die if she fell. All of the words Rei had spoken previously flooded back to memory.
'Again... Your elbows flare. Your grip weakens.'
'Again... That's wasted motion. Refuse to give up.'
'Again!'
With strangled breath she managed to pull her chin over the bar, shoulders screaming, her core locks. For a heartbeat she holds here at the top. She thinks how this is thirty eigh... No. There are just two more.
'Again... Struggle to feel pain. Pain is Data.'
'Again!'
With tears dripping down her face she struggled for the last two reps and held herself at the very end. At this point she knew Rei must be watching, and so she held.
"Forty."
Nozomi swung herself to safety at the word from her teacher and her body trembled as the pain roared in her ears. She lifted herself up as her legs shook and her arms felt like pieces of meat.
"You have hit the minimum acceptable level to continue. Congratulations."
The words both felt like praise and a stab through the heart.
Rei stepped forward and tossed Nozomi a canteen. Even the metal container felt painfully cold against her torn-up hands. Nozomi drank only in measured sips, she had already learned the cost of drinking too fast. Everything with Rei was a lesson and Nozomi has learned that everything has a cost. As she drank, her breathing slowly leveled out. Her mind, rattled by exertion, began to clear. Rei’s gaze was on her, always gathering data. She observed the tremor in Nozomi’s arms, the tension in her shoulders, the way exhaustion pulled her spine inward. Rei never said so aloud, but Nozomi was beginning to truly understand the structure of her teachers thinking. Rei read bodies the way others read scrolls. Muscle fatigue, breath patterns, and pain tolerance are lines of text in a language Rei was fluent in. The training Nozomi endured was not merely physical, it was diagnostic.
When Nozomi finally stood again, even with the world tilting faintly around her, she moved toward the edge. The village could barely be seen spread below them, a cluster of lights and metal that through the clouds and distance seemed like a world away. Almost a fragile thing from this vantage point. She still heard the question in her head, the one Rei posed to her the first day she agreed to follow this training.
'Why are you here?'
It was something she answered with every bead of sweat and still she struggled with it. Why was she here as a Ryuu girl whose blood promised brilliance and ruin in equal measure? The truth lived in Nozomi’s own thoughts only as she still had not yet manifested the words. At least not until now. Exhaling, she would turn back towards Rei and answer the question that rang in her head.
"I am here because I can become something dangerous and precise. I intend to survive this curse and not break to it. I struggle to become a weapon for the village that can think, adapt, and bend the battlefield with strategy rather than raw talent or instinct. I am here to survive and to ensure others have the same luxury."
[WC: 929, Marked for Training]
[Part 1 of future Kinjutsu Application. Parts 2+ coming soon.]