Day 6: Relaxation

I was unable to sleep, despite how tired I was. Constantly I tossed and turned in bed, I felt as though I was doing something wrong, that I normally did something else. Slowly I got up and walked outside to the balcony where a cool breeze greeted me. My bare feet touched the cold snow. After getting a bit of fresh air I went back and sat on the bed. Breathing in and out continuously releasing and sealing off my Aura. It wasn't very long until I fell unconscious due to exhaustion.

I woke up. Looking over to the side I saw the time.

10:17

The alarm had been ringing for a while, though I never heard it. I was probably too exhausted to even bother turning it off. Slowly I got out of bed and then collapsed a moment later. Every single muscle in my body ached and pained. I didn't want to move.

"So you're up." Mewtwo said teleporting into the room.

"Sort of..." I muttered on the floor.

"Figures." Mewtwo said looking down at me. "Intensive Aura training can do this. Since Aura requires drawing energy from your body. It will take at most a day for your body to replenish all of the Aura you lost."

"I guess I can't train today." I said. "So what are you going to do?"

"Relax is what's on my schedule. Starting with you walking down to the cafeteria."

"I hate you..."

"Deep down you will be thanking me for doing this."

I sincerely doubt that.

"Just think four more days until your fight."

Which I am having very little difficulty in remembering that it was you who got me in this situation to begin with.

"Then I'm sure you can do what ever you please until the day you die!"

Go die...

"Have you forgotten that I can read your mind?"

No it just is currently taking too much effort to talk right now...

"Sure it is... Well I'm sure you would like something to eat. You just have to go get it yourself."

"I might as well just kill you all right now and go join the Reaper..." I grumbled.

"If I didn't know you were joking I would have no choice but to kill you right now." Mewtwo said. "Next time don't say such words. In any case I'll be in the cafeteria until you come down..."

With that Mewtwo teleported away. I just lied there for a while. Each time I tried to move a sharp pain jolted through me. Eventually I crawled to the bathroom and started up the bath. After relaxing in the hot water for a while I got out. My body was feeling slightly better. It still pained with every step I took but it was at least a lot more bearable this time. After getting dressed I began to walk to the cafeteria. The hallways were empty. Normally I would pass a Smasher or two but this time no one was in the halls.

Even when I got to the cafeteria it was strangely empty. Only Mewtwo sat at a table. Slowly I walked over. "What happened? Where is everybody?"

"Its the weekend." Mewtwo said. "Saturday, December 8th, 2007. Mostly everyone is out Christmas shopping, with Christmas being only 17 days away and all."

"What about you?" I wondered.

"I don't really care for holidays." Mewtwo said. "Never really have, never will. Specifically holidays that have lost all meaning are now just based around the materialism of the world."

It came to my realization that Mewtwo's likes were few and far between. He wasn't a very easy person to get along with, as at times it seemed like he was trying to kill me. I went in to get some food. A moment later I came out with a plate full. Mewtwo just shot me a glare looking at the various different food items I had picked up. "I will never understand you eat some of that crap." Mewtwo muttered.

"We just have different tastes." I said.

"Taste has nothing to do with it." Mewtwo handed me a card. On it was a picture of me. "I filled out your information for the battle with Marth. I had a small bit of trouble with a few parts so I just improvised."

I looked at the various fields required on the card. One of the first ones was name which Mewtwo had filled out as "Nugai". The next one was first appearance which Mewtwo had filled out as "Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh (Dragon King: The Fighting Game) (N64) (Japan Only)"

"What is this?" I questioned.

"Your identification card, you need it to fight."

"Do they normally contain this much bullshit?"

"No, take mine for example: Name: Mewtwo, First appearance: Pokemon Red and Green."

I returned to eating the food. Occasionally I would glance up at Mewtwo who was in deep thought. "Are you done eating?" He asked. "Because you have to train."

"I thought you said were relaxing today!" I protested.

"Relaxing can also be a form of training." Mewtwo explained. "It depends on how you relax."

I finished up my food and Mewtwo stood up. He began to lead me to a part of the Smash HQ that I hadn't been to before. Eventually he brought me to an out door pool. Both Bowser and a Charzard were breathing fire onto the water.

"Water is one of the few natural substances that can suppress Aura." Mewtwo explained. "I'm sure you noticed this when you were taking your bath today. As you swim in here your Aura will build up in your body."

"Okay just let me get this straight." I said assessing the situation. "First you want me to swim in this water, which is outside, in winter. It is quite possibly below zero. I may catch hypothermia..."

"You will be fine. Bowser and Charizard have been heating this water for a few hours. Not to mention we used a Moltres and Entei to really heat it up, and the normal heating system."

"But shouldn't I change into something else."

"No." Mewtwo said pushing me in.

He was right. The water was warm. Naturally I didn't want to get out due to the cold bitter wind. "Okay so what should I do?"

"The breaststroke?" Mewtwo suggested. I rolled my eyes and looked up. "Just move around in the water." I began to do so, but I noticed that it was a lot harder to do than moving around in water normally was. "I've added a special chemical in the pool. It makes the water hard to move if you aren't exerting Aura. And with the normal suppressing properties of water it will be a lot harder to move. Not to mention your clothing and weights will drag you down."

"This is your idea of relaxing?" I questioned angrily. "You're trying to kill me again!"

"Don't worry I have full confidence that you will survive." Mewtwo said. "Besides if you can release your Aura you should be able to move the water out of the way and move around normally."

"This is crazy!" I said.

"There is also one other thing that you should probably know..." Mewtwo said. "If you don't get out all of the Aura that is built up due to natural suppression will cause your body to expand and you will..."

"I'll explode!" I finished off the sentence for Mewtwo more or less a bit pissed off.

"I never said that." Mewtwo said. "With your current lack of Aura it would take at least two weeks of constant swimming before you exceeded your normal Aura to a hazardous point. The normal human can take up to ten times of their regular Aura in their body. Most of the time Aura is dispersed and created at an equal rate. However since you have lost a great deal of Aura your body is making it at double of what it usually would. We are using this method in order to stock pile some Aura."

"This sounds needlessly complicated." I muttered. "Since when does this come up in the real world?"

Mewtwo quickly began to talk to me telepathically so that Bowser and Charzard wouldn't hear us.

"Let me remind you that currently your 'real world' is more or less a videogame and nearly everything that an NPC says in a videogame more or less does become helpful! This isn't math!"

Only if you didn't read the manual...

Mewtwo threw in a shadow ball and suddenly the water became impossible to move around in. "Now then the only way to move in the water is to use your Aura. Otherwise you are pretty much just stuck in rock. Also Bowser and Charzard will stop heating the water so it will freeze if you aren't fast enough."

"You really are trying to kill me..." I muttered.

"But that should take a few hours at most."

I know you want me dead... it was what I said this morning right?

"In any case I will enjoy watching you squirm."

Bloody sadist

Mewtwo had all ready given me the hints that I needed. Aura would be capable of cutting through the solid water. I would just have to some how be able to harness my Aura and make it cut through the water. Knowing that was the easy part. So far I had only mastered using Aura through my hands. Letting Aura go around my whole body would be much harder. Not to mention I was most likely all ready nearly fully depleted on Aura to start with. The little that my body had made I doubt would prove to be effective.

I focused the Aura around my hands and I was able to move them. I started by wiggling my fingers and eventually closing my hand to make a fist. My speed for drawing out Aura had greatly improved over yesterday. Not that it really mattered. I tried to imagine the Aura crawling from my hands to my wrist and up my arms. But that wasn't effective. It was also very hard trying to concentrate when all of my clothing was wet. It took me a while but I began to focus my Aura at both my feet and hands simultaneously. For the first time I realized how weird it was. I was exerting my Aura so much it felt like my hands and feet had fallen asleep. Eventually I was able to release my Aura from my legs and arms. By the time I had managed that it seemed that I was still for so long they were stiff.

The water was now getting colder. It would only be a matter of time before I was free or frozen. Somewhere deep down inside I began to panic. Something that I shouldn't have done since I lost my concentration and with it my Aura. I was now stuck in the water unable to move. And above all else I felt cold and exhausted. Almost as if on cue Marth appeared to mock me.

"I see, so that's what you're doing Mewtwo." Marth laughed.

"Aren't you a bit worried?" Mewtwo asked Marth.

"I'm worried about him becoming a human Popsicle if that's what you mean. I want to get my honor back."

Is losing to Pichu that humiliating that you have to bitch and whine about it endlessly?

"I was referring to him gaining power."

"No, not at all." Marth replied. He had no fear in his voice. "Its one thing if you have power. Its a completely different thing for you to be able to control it properly."

I realized that Marth was right, and even if I was able to control my Aura I still wouldn't be able to defeat him just by defending. With that Marth just walked away.

"Don't worry." Mewtwo said. "You can throw a punch and that's really all it takes. I'm sure you can win. Besides Marth has a weakness, his pride."

After that we got back to work. It wasn't long before I was suddenly able to move. I just began to swim a few laps not wanting to get out. The water was still warm and the air was so cold. Eventually I just began to float on my back.

I just floated there. All my worries just seemed to drift away.

I could stay in here forever...

"Okay he is getting too relaxed." Mewtwo said. "Bowser jump into the pool."

"But I can't swim!" Bowser protested.

"That wasn't a suggestion." Mewtwo just waved his hand and Bowser floated up into the air, the next moment he was thrown into the pool nearly hitting me.

Bowser began to flail around. "Help!" He cried. "I'm going to drown!"

"Bowser... just stand up..." Mewtwo sighed. "You know for someone based off of a mythical water creature, I was thinking you were able to swim..."

"Wait how is Bowser able to move around freely?" I asked.

"This gel only works on those with a certain body heat. Bowser has a lot higher body heat than you. It quickly melts the gel that stops you from moving." Mewtwo explained.

We both got out of the pool. Soon the cold bitter wind hit me. "Next. Before we go in create a barrier."

Wanting to get inside really quickly I created a barrier in front of myself. "Make it bigger." Mewtwo ordered. "Make it so that it protects us all from the wind."

I did so. It took a while but I eventually created a flat barrier that was capable of blocking the wind. With that we went inside. I was so cold. I was shivering nearly uncontrollably. "You might have noticed it but Aura gives off a warm feeling." Mewtwo said. "Use it to warm up your body."

"I thought you said I was going to relax. But all I've been doing is dispersing more and more Aura!" I protested.

"That's true." Mewtwo said. "However I've been testing your container. The capacity that your body has to store Aura. Its just average."

I didn't notice but Mewtwo was leading me up to my room on the thirtieth floor. I looked around in shock. "You should spend the rest of the day sleeping. Aura refills the fastest during sleep."

"So what was the purpose of today?" I asked Mewtwo.

"It was to simply have you to exhaust your Aura once again and then relax in order to draw out your hidden powers." Mewtwo replied.

"I'm not buying that."

"Training will start first thing in the morning tomorrow. You only have three more days of training and then the match. Feeling nervous?"

"Not really..."

"Perhaps you should..." Mewtwo said. "Marth will hold nothing back..."

I entered my room and made myself a hot chocolate. After drinking it I went to bed and began to sleep the rest of the day away.

To be continued...

Fun facts:

Nugai (pronounced 'New Guy') is actually what a member of the pokemon fandom (at bulbagarden) called Shinji/Paul before he was given an official name and just shown off in the official art work.

"Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh" (Dragon King: The Fighting Game) Those who read Iwata Asks for SSBB should know that this was the first name for SSB before the whole adding in Nintendo characters.