Training
Written by Shiva Barnwell
Disclaimer: All Anime Characters and concepts are the property of their respective creators. The same is true of any references that might be applied in this fanfiction. This is strictly a work of fanfiction and is by no means meant to be taken literally.
"Well, goodbye Crystal. I'll see you in a month or so."
"See ya after your training trip Shiva. Don't get yourself killed!"
"It shouldn't be too hard to stay alive; after all, I'm the only one going training."
"True, but then you considering nearly being killed 'training' as well."
Shiva shrugged. "Well, I guess you have a point. Anyway, bye!"
And with that, Shiva walked away from Crystal's apartment, carrying nothing but his subspace picnic basket, carrying a few tons of food, and a duffel bag filled with his essentials: pots and pans, a canteen, flint, and his weapons. He was convinced that he was going soft and needed to go training. The mere fact that his punch didn't damage the Centaur was enough of a reason to train, and added to that the Centaur's attack actually managed to hurt him. Shiva was going to train, and there was nothing and no one who could stop him.
Once he reached the outskirts of Nerima, he teleported to America, stopping first at a mansion in Seattle, Washington. Shiva saw his former sensei, Ken Masters, swimming in his pool, and decided to give him a little wake up call.
"HADOUKEN!" Shiva launched a traditional fireball directly at Ken, giving him barely enough time to dodge the attack.
"AAH!!! Jesus, couldn't you have just said hi instead?"
"What, and ruin the surprise?"
"Heh, same old Shiva. So, what'd you drop by for?"
"I need a couple of things. I'm going training in the Grand Canyon, and I need to build up my strength and speed, so I need to get a bow, a quiver of arrows, and an axe."
"That's it? Why are you asking me for these things? Don't you already have an axe and a bow?" "Yes, Ken, but I need special weapons. I need a bow that requires a tremendous amount of strength to use, and I need an axe to fit the same requirements."
"Alright, I'll see what my men can do for you."
"Thanks Ken. I owe you one."
"Ahh, don't mention it, Kid. Besides, seeing what a terrific fighter you've become is payment enough."
Shiva blushed. Then he remembered something. "Oh, one more thing. I need a custom weapon built for me. Not for training, though I suppose I could use it as such. I need a metal pole to be constructed to be the same size as a bo. However, I want you to use a carbon-carbon bond and the densest metal you can find to make it. Also, I want it to have the ability to convert into 3 parts, connected by a chain. Basically, I want a bo that's so dense that anything hit by it will either break or fly backwards."
"Alright, now that's gonna cost you some money. I'm not a charity case you know. So, how much do you want this thing to weigh?"
"I want it to be half a metric ton."
"WHAT?!?"
"You heard me, Ken. I want the weapon to weigh half a metric ton. You know, 1,100 pounds?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know how much that is. But are you sure you'll be able to wield it?"
"That'll be a test of my training. If I can use it with speed and accuracy, I'll know I'm done with my training. Oh, and Ken, get me multiple strings for the bow. Start out with 200 kilos of pressure needed to pull it, and work it up to half a metric ton, with each string being 100 kilos stronger."
"Alright. So that's.... four strings. All right, I'll give you a discount. $5,000."
"Alright, that sounds reasonable."
"And, you have to use your own money; you can't just create it."
Shiva glared daggers at Ken. "You always knew how to hurt me, didn't you Ken?"
Ken grinned. "Hey, what can I say? I know you can manipulate matter, so I'm making sure you pay me real money."
"Fine, Fine. Just let me get my card." And with that, Shiva transferred the appropriate funds to Ken's account. "Damn you," said Shiva, "I only have $100,000 dollars now. That means I have to do more street fights."
"Whatever," said Ken, "just come back in a week; your stuff should be done by then."
"Thanks Ken." And with that, Shiva left Ken's mansion, teleporting to the Grand Canyon. "Ahh, the perfect place to train. There's no one around, the walls are completely vertical, the temperature varies dramatically...this is perfect!"
Saying this, Shiva promptly opened his basket, and pulled out what would be for a normal person an eleven-course meal, but for Shiva it was merely enough to sustain him. "Damnit, one of these days my appetite will get the best of me. I know that this is caused by me healing myself at a rapid rate, but this is ridiculous. I wish I could change it, but I guess I just got bad genes....genes...that's it! I'll change my genetic make-up! But what if I screw up? I could seriously screw myself over by doing that? Ahh, I'll just create a shadow copy of me!" So saying, Shiva concentrated and, using his DNA, made an exact duplicate of himself, giving a small portion of his soul to the creature.
"Alright, now to start tinkering."
"Ahem," the copy replied, "I have rights. You can't do this to me."
"Well, technically, I'm doing it to myself, and no, you don't have rights; cloning's illegal."
"Which means I can take you in." Replied the clone.
"As well as get yourself destroyed in the process. You know what, you're too much like me, so I'm just going to absorb you and make another copy."
"Hey! You can't do that!"
"Watch me." And with that, Shiva drew back his essence from the copy, causing it to disintegrate. "Alright, so an exact copy of me is too much of an ass, which means I have to change some parameters on it." Several failed tries later, Shiva finally got the combination right: a copy who was like him in almost all ways, but willing to be reabsorbed when the time came.
"Hmm," Shiva thought to himself, "now what can I do to fix my food problem? I could make it so that my digestive system processes food and liquids better, and gets more nutrients out of it, or I could give my body the ability to convert carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into each other automatically, or I could increase my energy efficiency. Or...I could do all of the above!"
And thus Shiva spent the next week, trying out different combinations of genes, trying to get the right mix to make his food intake as minimal as possible, while still maintaining peak efficiency. However, he didn't spend all of his time playing God. The rest of the time was physically training, from sprinting the entire day, to ascending and descending mountains upside-down, to dragging and carrying large, heavy objects, while walking on his feet, as well as his hands.
Finally, by the end of the week, Shiva had perfected his copy's digestive system. He retained more water, got more nutrients from his food, gave him the ability to convert carbs, fat, and protein into one another automatically, should the body need one more than the other, and so on. He then applied the changes on himself.
"Nice. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few packages to retrieve. You stay here." said Shiva.
"Sure thing." replied the copy.
Shiva teleported back to Ken's mansion retrieved his items, and teleported them to his training grounds, one by one. The entire trip lasted 30 minutes.
"Hmm...I think I'll start with the bow. Shiva' [Shiva prime, the name of the clone], I want you to retrieve the arrows once I'm done. Can you do that?"
"Sure." replied Shiva'.
Shiva aimed at the opposing cliff wall, and began firing a volley of arrows, one right after the other, until he'd emptied his quiver. Shiva' promptly returned with all of the arrows. Shiva repeated this exercise five times, until he was sure he wouldn't tire from the actions. He then lifted the battle-axe.
"Umph! Well, Ken certainly built me a good axe: it feel's like it's about 500 lbs." Shiva began swinging the axe around, getting a feel for its balance and center of gravity. Once he got the hang of it, he slowly increased it's mass, so that it became 100 pounds heavier every 30 minutes. Once it got to 800 pounds or so, he stopped. His gi was completely drenched, and he was dripping sweat.
"Damn, I'm drenched. I need some water." Shiva quickly drank down close to a gallon of water. "Hmm, that's something I need to work on. The body loses 40% of its energy as heat, so we're only 60% efficient. Let's see how efficient I can make my body."
And so Shiva spent his second week attempting, with mixed results, to create a body that was at least 90% efficient. He also spent it doing the previous training actions, as well as working his way up to the string that needed 500 kilos of pressure to pull, as well as working with the broad-axe at 500 kilos as well. By the end of the week, he could pull back the string repeatedly without tiring, swing the axe around for extended periods of time with great precision and accuracy, and had gotten his body up to 95% efficiency, surpassing his goal.
"Well, it seems as if I'm nearing the end of my training mission." Shiva said to himself as he was rapidly scaling a mile-high cliffwall, upside- down. "I can use the bow and the axe for an entire day without any fatigue, as well as sprint all day long. I'm eating less and I'm barely sweating. And yet, I feel that there is much to be done. I wonder if I could make myself stronger and faster through genetic manipulation?"
Shiva spent only a few days working on this problem, his mastery of genetics increasing daily. He increased the tensile strength of his muscles, meaning he had to expend less energy to lift the same amount, which also allowed him to move faster. He was now sparring with his shadow form to see just how good he was against an equal opponent. Had there been an audience, the spectators would have been in awe. The speed and power exhibited was phenomenal, and the movements were beautiful, like a piece of priceless art. Shiva spent the other half of the week increasing lung capacity, as well as the amount of oxygen drawn from the air, and decreasing his reaction time to .001 seconds, as well as making it easier for him to heal himself. So long as he had enough of him left to stay alive for a few moments, he could repair himself, even if he was missing entire organs. With his new strength, he had to increase the mass of his weapons to a metric ton to get any training out of it.
"Well, this has been a very productive training session. But there's still one more thing I need to do. Shiva', I'm going to try to increase my ki sensitivity. I want you to withhold your aura as much as you can, and then punch and kick at me. Do not actually make contact yet. I want you to put as much speed and power as you think necessary, but do not hit me. Understood? Shiva' nodded.
Shiva tied a bandana around his eyes, as well as plugged his ears, to block out any sound. He then had his clone launch attacks at him. Eventually, he could sense the attacks, and began to make blocking motions. The next day, he had Shiva' actually try to hit him, and many attacks got through his defense in the beginning. However, by the end of the day, Shiva was blocking all of the attacks thrown at him. The next day, he had Shiva' attack him at full speed, which was now at times breaking the sound barrier. Shiva blocked and countered nearly every attack, and by the end of the day...well, you get the point.
The rest of the week was spent meditating, focusing chi and ki, as well as attempting to get to his full power. On the last day of the fourth week, Shiva meditated for the entire day. Sometime into the night, he achieved his goal: complete inner peace. For one brief instant, Shiva was at peace with the world. And in that instant, Shiva unlocked all of his mental blocks. He became aware of his full potential, of techniques and powers he didn't know existed. He generated an aura of immense power, drawing energy from deep within himself, as well as from external sources. Power spikes were seen around the world, and it was rumored that the aura could be seen from space, but there's nothing to substantiate that.
The morning after, Shiva packed up, reabsorbing his shadow copy, sent the bow and axe to hammerspace, the same place that Shampoo draws her weapons from, and put the bo, folded into 3 pieces, into his duffel bag. As he was leaving he heard a strange voice calling out, "Where am I now?"
"Ryoga, is that you?" shouted Shiva. "What are you doing in the Grand Canyon?"
"I am not in the Grand Canyon. I'll have you know I'm still in Japan; I'm just in some very large canyon in Japan."
"Ryoga, name one place, besides the Grand Canyon, that's canyon walls are literally a mile high?" Ryoga thought for a moment, and then, after a long period of silence, shrugged.
"Hey Shiva, do you want to spar?"
"No thanks, Ryoga. No offense, but you're not a challenge anymore?"
"Oh yeah?" challenged Ryoga as he rushed Shiva.
Shiva dodged the attack, and launched a punch as hard and as fast as he could at Ryoga. The punch didn't connect, but the resulting shockwave struck him dead in the chest. Shiva then rushed behind Ryoga as he was flying backwards and thumped him on the shoulder with one of his fingers, dislocating it.
"Like I said Ryoga," said Shiva as he was relocating Ryoga's shoulder, "you're not a challenge anymore." Ryoga just stared at Shiva in awe.
"No one can improve so much in so little time. It's inhuman! How'd you do it?"
Shiva shrugged. "Genetic manipulation, grueling training, and the ability to heal myself."
"Speaking of which," said Ryoga, "what would you look like if you didn't have that ability?"
"Oh...," said Shiva as he conjured up an illusion in which he had no arms or legs, was missing most of his skin and muscles, with what was left of them charred and burnt, his skull broken and missing in places, entrails falling out, and his eyes missing. "Oh...something like that I suppose." replied Shiva as he dissipated the illusion.
"...I think I'm going to throw up." replied Ryoga.
"Have fun, and do it where I can't see it." Once Ryoga was done, Shiva teleported him back to Nerima, as well as himself. He was in the best shape of his young life, and couldn't wait for a chance to prove himself in battle.
Written by Shiva Barnwell
Disclaimer: All Anime Characters and concepts are the property of their respective creators. The same is true of any references that might be applied in this fanfiction. This is strictly a work of fanfiction and is by no means meant to be taken literally.
"Well, goodbye Crystal. I'll see you in a month or so."
"See ya after your training trip Shiva. Don't get yourself killed!"
"It shouldn't be too hard to stay alive; after all, I'm the only one going training."
"True, but then you considering nearly being killed 'training' as well."
Shiva shrugged. "Well, I guess you have a point. Anyway, bye!"
And with that, Shiva walked away from Crystal's apartment, carrying nothing but his subspace picnic basket, carrying a few tons of food, and a duffel bag filled with his essentials: pots and pans, a canteen, flint, and his weapons. He was convinced that he was going soft and needed to go training. The mere fact that his punch didn't damage the Centaur was enough of a reason to train, and added to that the Centaur's attack actually managed to hurt him. Shiva was going to train, and there was nothing and no one who could stop him.
Once he reached the outskirts of Nerima, he teleported to America, stopping first at a mansion in Seattle, Washington. Shiva saw his former sensei, Ken Masters, swimming in his pool, and decided to give him a little wake up call.
"HADOUKEN!" Shiva launched a traditional fireball directly at Ken, giving him barely enough time to dodge the attack.
"AAH!!! Jesus, couldn't you have just said hi instead?"
"What, and ruin the surprise?"
"Heh, same old Shiva. So, what'd you drop by for?"
"I need a couple of things. I'm going training in the Grand Canyon, and I need to build up my strength and speed, so I need to get a bow, a quiver of arrows, and an axe."
"That's it? Why are you asking me for these things? Don't you already have an axe and a bow?" "Yes, Ken, but I need special weapons. I need a bow that requires a tremendous amount of strength to use, and I need an axe to fit the same requirements."
"Alright, I'll see what my men can do for you."
"Thanks Ken. I owe you one."
"Ahh, don't mention it, Kid. Besides, seeing what a terrific fighter you've become is payment enough."
Shiva blushed. Then he remembered something. "Oh, one more thing. I need a custom weapon built for me. Not for training, though I suppose I could use it as such. I need a metal pole to be constructed to be the same size as a bo. However, I want you to use a carbon-carbon bond and the densest metal you can find to make it. Also, I want it to have the ability to convert into 3 parts, connected by a chain. Basically, I want a bo that's so dense that anything hit by it will either break or fly backwards."
"Alright, now that's gonna cost you some money. I'm not a charity case you know. So, how much do you want this thing to weigh?"
"I want it to be half a metric ton."
"WHAT?!?"
"You heard me, Ken. I want the weapon to weigh half a metric ton. You know, 1,100 pounds?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know how much that is. But are you sure you'll be able to wield it?"
"That'll be a test of my training. If I can use it with speed and accuracy, I'll know I'm done with my training. Oh, and Ken, get me multiple strings for the bow. Start out with 200 kilos of pressure needed to pull it, and work it up to half a metric ton, with each string being 100 kilos stronger."
"Alright. So that's.... four strings. All right, I'll give you a discount. $5,000."
"Alright, that sounds reasonable."
"And, you have to use your own money; you can't just create it."
Shiva glared daggers at Ken. "You always knew how to hurt me, didn't you Ken?"
Ken grinned. "Hey, what can I say? I know you can manipulate matter, so I'm making sure you pay me real money."
"Fine, Fine. Just let me get my card." And with that, Shiva transferred the appropriate funds to Ken's account. "Damn you," said Shiva, "I only have $100,000 dollars now. That means I have to do more street fights."
"Whatever," said Ken, "just come back in a week; your stuff should be done by then."
"Thanks Ken." And with that, Shiva left Ken's mansion, teleporting to the Grand Canyon. "Ahh, the perfect place to train. There's no one around, the walls are completely vertical, the temperature varies dramatically...this is perfect!"
Saying this, Shiva promptly opened his basket, and pulled out what would be for a normal person an eleven-course meal, but for Shiva it was merely enough to sustain him. "Damnit, one of these days my appetite will get the best of me. I know that this is caused by me healing myself at a rapid rate, but this is ridiculous. I wish I could change it, but I guess I just got bad genes....genes...that's it! I'll change my genetic make-up! But what if I screw up? I could seriously screw myself over by doing that? Ahh, I'll just create a shadow copy of me!" So saying, Shiva concentrated and, using his DNA, made an exact duplicate of himself, giving a small portion of his soul to the creature.
"Alright, now to start tinkering."
"Ahem," the copy replied, "I have rights. You can't do this to me."
"Well, technically, I'm doing it to myself, and no, you don't have rights; cloning's illegal."
"Which means I can take you in." Replied the clone.
"As well as get yourself destroyed in the process. You know what, you're too much like me, so I'm just going to absorb you and make another copy."
"Hey! You can't do that!"
"Watch me." And with that, Shiva drew back his essence from the copy, causing it to disintegrate. "Alright, so an exact copy of me is too much of an ass, which means I have to change some parameters on it." Several failed tries later, Shiva finally got the combination right: a copy who was like him in almost all ways, but willing to be reabsorbed when the time came.
"Hmm," Shiva thought to himself, "now what can I do to fix my food problem? I could make it so that my digestive system processes food and liquids better, and gets more nutrients out of it, or I could give my body the ability to convert carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into each other automatically, or I could increase my energy efficiency. Or...I could do all of the above!"
And thus Shiva spent the next week, trying out different combinations of genes, trying to get the right mix to make his food intake as minimal as possible, while still maintaining peak efficiency. However, he didn't spend all of his time playing God. The rest of the time was physically training, from sprinting the entire day, to ascending and descending mountains upside-down, to dragging and carrying large, heavy objects, while walking on his feet, as well as his hands.
Finally, by the end of the week, Shiva had perfected his copy's digestive system. He retained more water, got more nutrients from his food, gave him the ability to convert carbs, fat, and protein into one another automatically, should the body need one more than the other, and so on. He then applied the changes on himself.
"Nice. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few packages to retrieve. You stay here." said Shiva.
"Sure thing." replied the copy.
Shiva teleported back to Ken's mansion retrieved his items, and teleported them to his training grounds, one by one. The entire trip lasted 30 minutes.
"Hmm...I think I'll start with the bow. Shiva' [Shiva prime, the name of the clone], I want you to retrieve the arrows once I'm done. Can you do that?"
"Sure." replied Shiva'.
Shiva aimed at the opposing cliff wall, and began firing a volley of arrows, one right after the other, until he'd emptied his quiver. Shiva' promptly returned with all of the arrows. Shiva repeated this exercise five times, until he was sure he wouldn't tire from the actions. He then lifted the battle-axe.
"Umph! Well, Ken certainly built me a good axe: it feel's like it's about 500 lbs." Shiva began swinging the axe around, getting a feel for its balance and center of gravity. Once he got the hang of it, he slowly increased it's mass, so that it became 100 pounds heavier every 30 minutes. Once it got to 800 pounds or so, he stopped. His gi was completely drenched, and he was dripping sweat.
"Damn, I'm drenched. I need some water." Shiva quickly drank down close to a gallon of water. "Hmm, that's something I need to work on. The body loses 40% of its energy as heat, so we're only 60% efficient. Let's see how efficient I can make my body."
And so Shiva spent his second week attempting, with mixed results, to create a body that was at least 90% efficient. He also spent it doing the previous training actions, as well as working his way up to the string that needed 500 kilos of pressure to pull, as well as working with the broad-axe at 500 kilos as well. By the end of the week, he could pull back the string repeatedly without tiring, swing the axe around for extended periods of time with great precision and accuracy, and had gotten his body up to 95% efficiency, surpassing his goal.
"Well, it seems as if I'm nearing the end of my training mission." Shiva said to himself as he was rapidly scaling a mile-high cliffwall, upside- down. "I can use the bow and the axe for an entire day without any fatigue, as well as sprint all day long. I'm eating less and I'm barely sweating. And yet, I feel that there is much to be done. I wonder if I could make myself stronger and faster through genetic manipulation?"
Shiva spent only a few days working on this problem, his mastery of genetics increasing daily. He increased the tensile strength of his muscles, meaning he had to expend less energy to lift the same amount, which also allowed him to move faster. He was now sparring with his shadow form to see just how good he was against an equal opponent. Had there been an audience, the spectators would have been in awe. The speed and power exhibited was phenomenal, and the movements were beautiful, like a piece of priceless art. Shiva spent the other half of the week increasing lung capacity, as well as the amount of oxygen drawn from the air, and decreasing his reaction time to .001 seconds, as well as making it easier for him to heal himself. So long as he had enough of him left to stay alive for a few moments, he could repair himself, even if he was missing entire organs. With his new strength, he had to increase the mass of his weapons to a metric ton to get any training out of it.
"Well, this has been a very productive training session. But there's still one more thing I need to do. Shiva', I'm going to try to increase my ki sensitivity. I want you to withhold your aura as much as you can, and then punch and kick at me. Do not actually make contact yet. I want you to put as much speed and power as you think necessary, but do not hit me. Understood? Shiva' nodded.
Shiva tied a bandana around his eyes, as well as plugged his ears, to block out any sound. He then had his clone launch attacks at him. Eventually, he could sense the attacks, and began to make blocking motions. The next day, he had Shiva' actually try to hit him, and many attacks got through his defense in the beginning. However, by the end of the day, Shiva was blocking all of the attacks thrown at him. The next day, he had Shiva' attack him at full speed, which was now at times breaking the sound barrier. Shiva blocked and countered nearly every attack, and by the end of the day...well, you get the point.
The rest of the week was spent meditating, focusing chi and ki, as well as attempting to get to his full power. On the last day of the fourth week, Shiva meditated for the entire day. Sometime into the night, he achieved his goal: complete inner peace. For one brief instant, Shiva was at peace with the world. And in that instant, Shiva unlocked all of his mental blocks. He became aware of his full potential, of techniques and powers he didn't know existed. He generated an aura of immense power, drawing energy from deep within himself, as well as from external sources. Power spikes were seen around the world, and it was rumored that the aura could be seen from space, but there's nothing to substantiate that.
The morning after, Shiva packed up, reabsorbing his shadow copy, sent the bow and axe to hammerspace, the same place that Shampoo draws her weapons from, and put the bo, folded into 3 pieces, into his duffel bag. As he was leaving he heard a strange voice calling out, "Where am I now?"
"Ryoga, is that you?" shouted Shiva. "What are you doing in the Grand Canyon?"
"I am not in the Grand Canyon. I'll have you know I'm still in Japan; I'm just in some very large canyon in Japan."
"Ryoga, name one place, besides the Grand Canyon, that's canyon walls are literally a mile high?" Ryoga thought for a moment, and then, after a long period of silence, shrugged.
"Hey Shiva, do you want to spar?"
"No thanks, Ryoga. No offense, but you're not a challenge anymore?"
"Oh yeah?" challenged Ryoga as he rushed Shiva.
Shiva dodged the attack, and launched a punch as hard and as fast as he could at Ryoga. The punch didn't connect, but the resulting shockwave struck him dead in the chest. Shiva then rushed behind Ryoga as he was flying backwards and thumped him on the shoulder with one of his fingers, dislocating it.
"Like I said Ryoga," said Shiva as he was relocating Ryoga's shoulder, "you're not a challenge anymore." Ryoga just stared at Shiva in awe.
"No one can improve so much in so little time. It's inhuman! How'd you do it?"
Shiva shrugged. "Genetic manipulation, grueling training, and the ability to heal myself."
"Speaking of which," said Ryoga, "what would you look like if you didn't have that ability?"
"Oh...," said Shiva as he conjured up an illusion in which he had no arms or legs, was missing most of his skin and muscles, with what was left of them charred and burnt, his skull broken and missing in places, entrails falling out, and his eyes missing. "Oh...something like that I suppose." replied Shiva as he dissipated the illusion.
"...I think I'm going to throw up." replied Ryoga.
"Have fun, and do it where I can't see it." Once Ryoga was done, Shiva teleported him back to Nerima, as well as himself. He was in the best shape of his young life, and couldn't wait for a chance to prove himself in battle.