AN: Part 3 of 5. Got this done today. I am speed.

Btw, in case some of you somehow missed it, I posted two chapters yesterday. I checked the story stats and I have almost double the reader views on part 2 instead of part 1. I had a wtf moment looking at it lol.

Enjoy.

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Chapter 8: Life in Sakura Village Part 3:

"Angelbird Yakitori over here!"

"BBQ BB corn and veggies! Get your BBQ BB corn and veggies!"

"Slaughter fish stew, piping hot!"

Over a dozen calls rang through the village center as cats of all ages called out their sales, filling the area with tantalizing scents that sent Hei's mouth drooling.

"Hungry, brat?" Leone smirked down at him from the side. "Come on, I know a good place." She waved a hand and beckoned him to follow as she went down a side street.

Hei had trouble looking away from a stall with a sign labeled Manticore Skewers and couldn't help but ask. "I noticed it yesterday, but I wasn't sure if it was just the festive atmosphere or not. But why does all the food here smell so good?"

Leone barked a laugh. "It's cuz it's fresh and packed with everything a cat needs in a meal. You won't find our type of food elsewhere."

"The forest?" Hei assumed and got a nod back.

"Yeah, the Feral Forest encourages growth, and that growth gives us an endless supply of vicious baddies and rich plant life to harvest, not to mention our own crops."

Hei hummed at that as they approached a stall with a familiar trio of felines in small aprons running around behind a middle-aged nekomata.

Leone waved a hand as they walked up. "Yo, Liticia, dealing with the rascals, I see."

The middle-aged woman looked over with a laugh. "Leone, good to see you, dear. Here for lunch?"

"Of course, nothing beats your rice balls."

"Flattery won't get you a free meal, dear."

"Tsk."

Hei watched the byplay go on until the woman noticed him. "Oh, and this must be our new guest. Sorry, dear, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself last night."

Hei waved casually. "No worries, I noticed you had your hands full." He pointed behind her at the trio who were having a play fight with kitchen instruments.

"Girls, knock it off!" Liticia called and got their attention.

"Oh, it's that guy from yesterday!"

"Hei!"

"Shortie!"

The three shot forward like guided missiles, only for two to get caught in the mother's tails with expert precision and the third to get snatched by the back of her shirt. "Girls. What did I tell you about greeting guests like that?"

""Not to…""

"To go for the knees….*cough*….Not to."

Ni and Li responded with downcast expressions, but Shi almost dug her own grave before switching tunes at the glare she got.

Leone laughed at the show. "Don't worry too much, Liticia. Hei's a tough little brat; he can handle them just fine."

Hei shot the blond a withering glare as the mother asked in concern. "Are you sure? I thought he was human."

"He'll be fine~. Trust me." Leone shot Hei a wink as he grudgingly nodded under the hopeful soul-sucking eyes of the triplets.

"It's fine, ma'am."

"If you're sure…."

The mother had a complicated look as she released the trio.

"Yay!"

"Hi Hei!"

"Aim for the knees!"

He grunted under their charging affections.

"Oi, no biting!"

Leone smiled as he struggled with the three and turned to the middle-aged woman. "We'll take a dozen rice balls. Six Dire Boar meat, four pan-fried Cockatrice, and two Blushroom, please and thank you."

Liticia nodded at the order. "Blushroom? Are you in a rush, dear?"

"Nah, it's for the brat. He's gonna be training with Yoru in a bit."

"Ah." Liticia grimaced. "Say no more."

The order was soon ready, and a dozen sparkling white seaweed-covered rice triangles were wrapped for them.

"Bye Hei!"

"Come play with us soon, ya hear!"

"I'll get you next time; wash your neck."

Hei's scratched and ruffled-self twitched with a half-glare at the tiny form of Shi walking backward while running a thumb over her neck to emphasize her point with a smug grin.

"That little…."

"Come on, brat."

Leone dragged him away unresisting as he refused to break eye contact with the little gremlin till she pulled him around a corner.

"One day, Leone, I'll have my revenge for this injustice."

"You can't say they're not adorable."

"Adorable? Why did one of them attack my knee's like they offended her?"

"Ah, we had movie night a couple months ago."

"What are you showing five years olds?"

"Nekomata learn to hunt early, don't think too much into it."

"Is there a child services department in hell?"

Leone swatted the back of his head with a tail and huffed in amusement. "Come on, you don't have much time left and need to eat."

She jumped up onto a roof of a building and from there higher into a large branch of a tree with Hei following without trouble.

The two climbed the branches in record time before breaking through the canopy of branches and coming out at the apex.

"Wow."

"I know, right? Takes your breath away every time."

Hei took in the view with visual delight. It wasn't anything compared to the mana-sensing experience he had a few hours earlier, but it was still a sight for sore eyes.

A magical rainforest spread in all directions, with all manner of supernatural creatures sticking their long bodies or heads through the trees, giant birds flying through the air, trees of unheard-of sizes poking up into the clouds, and pockets of multicolored fogs drifting through.

"It's beautiful."

Leone chuckled and sat down on a branch as she let him take it all in.

"Can the creatures see the village like we can see them?"

"Nope~." Leone cheered as she unwrapped the food. "The barriers one-way sight. It lets us see out, but nothing can see or hear in."

"That's incredible." Hei murmured as he sat by her side. "I read up on the various branches of magic, and Warding and Sealing were said to be the rarest."

Leone waved a hand lazily. "It is, and it's not. Innovation is definitely rare, and finding a tome on them is equally rare. But like I already said, most factions have their own versions of wards protecting their important locations. I never got into the subject myself, but Yoru's the expert here. She's always had offers to set up wards for them but rejects them constantly."

She handed Hei a rice triangle, and he bit into it. "Damn, that's good."

"I know, right? Liticia makes the best lunch food."

"Mn. Why does she do it?"

"Liticia? I don't know, because she likes it, I guess? Ask her."

"Not her. Why does Yoru reject the offers?"

"Ah." Leone happily took a bite. "I told you a bit about Nekoshou before, but I wasn't kidding about how small our numbers are. We barely got a dozen all told, and we do our best to keep ourselves away from the big players in the world."

"Why?"

"Because if they knew what we could do, they would be a lot more wary of us. We might have a peace deal with the current Satans, and they earned our trust, but the majority of devil kind aren't nearly as friendly. Especially with those annoying High-Class brats wanting toys for their peerages."

"Ah." Hei unknowingly mimicked her answer as he understood the point. Whether it was as slaves, servants, or peerage pieces, Nekomata were prized commodities for devils. "Why are Nekoshou different?"

"Because we're stronger than the rest." Leone said simply. "Our innate connection to the concept of Nature mimics High-class devils and their annoying bloodlines. Basically cheat codes to tap into concepts without actually understanding them. If the majority knew what we could do with Senjutsu, they would be much more paranoid and greedy."

"Huh, that explains one of my questions about bloodlines." Hei idly commented. "But what do you do when a devil comes knocking?"

"Depends on who it is." She shrugged. "If they piss us off and their not important, their prey. If they're strong, we tighten the barriers. If it's a High-Class brat, we knock em out, wipe their memories, and then put them somewhere so humiliating they won't even want to remember what they had been doing."

"Hm, effective." Hei nodded and called up his Sacred Gear grimoire. Leone watched curiously as he pulled a card from his free slots and turned the card into a small bag.

"What's that?"

"Poison." Hei said simply and unraveled the bag that had a small cube and a bottle of ale in it. "Old man would get on my case if I didn't keep up with adding poison to every meal."

"You eat poison in every meal?" Leone's brow twitched at the concept. "Has he met Chloe or something?"

"Chloe?"

"Oh, right, she's the fourth leader of the village. Kinda a shut-in, and she's not malicious, but she's a tad loose in the head with her obsession with poisons."

"Huh, good to know. Might have some things to ask her about later."

"Like what?"

"Like magical poison resistance."

Leone choked on her food for a second and shot him an incredulous look. "Damn, you're serious, aren't you?" At his nod, she shook her head in exasperation. "I'll give her a heads up later."

"Thanks, Leone."

"Don't mention it, brat."

He tossed the cube in his mouth and washed it down with the ale.

Leone whistled at the sweet scent of the liquor and eyed it in interest. "You been holding out on me? Where's the love?"

Hei wiped his mouth and twitched at the spark of pain and heat in his stomach before it settled. "Within twenty minutes of meeting you, you fractured my ribs, tossed me through multiple trees, and implanted me in another. I fail to see the love."

She waved a hand airily. "It's called tough love."

Hei snorted in amusement and pulled out another bottle to toss the blond's way as he returned to his meal and bit into his fourth rice triangle. "Oh? What's in this?"

"Blushroom. It's a mushroom that grows around here. Speeds up digestion real fast, but can quickly turn into a laxative if you overeat them."

Hei spat out the food in his mouth and coughed hard. "Excuse me?!" He somehow doubted his immune system was prepared for magical drugs.

Leone had to cover her mouth at his expression to stop her laughter. "Relax. Unless you eat like six of them in a row, you'll be fine. Trust me, you have like ten minutes before Yoru shows up, and you'll need it."

A suspicious glare shot her way before he hesitantly bit back into his food. "If I shit myself in an hour, I'm not talking to you for a month."

Leone couldn't help it and busted out laughing at the mental image. "Ha! I'm sure Yoru will get a kick out of that."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Hei lazily waved a hand and watched the view as he ate in peace for a moment. "Hey, Leone."

"Hm?"

"What's future lessons going to look like with you? I assume today wasn't a standard lesson."

"It wasn't." Leone confirmed as she leaned back against a branch. "I wanted to introduce you to the various areas we will be focusing on first. I can't teach someone who thought they were crippled to walk until they realize they have legs."

"So what comes next?"

"Next….hm. I guess the next step is to focus on seeing your core with as much clarity as possible and extending the bubble around you to see outward as far and in as much detail as possible."

"What's the point of seeing my core?"

"Besides the obvious?" Leone teased but went on seriously. "Energy concealment requires you to pull all the tendrils of mana flowing into your body back into your core. It will fight back, of course, like trying to push a river back against its flow. But the more you can stuff in there, the harder it will be to detect you with anything beyond the five physical senses."

"I assume mastery is when you can suppress all your energy?"

"Yup, but it gets harder and harder the higher your Tier. Not only because you will have more energy, but because climbing the tiers of power makes the energy inside you denser."

"So even if you master it at Low-Class, you'll have more work to do at Mid-Class?"

"Exactly." Leone snapped her fingers and chewed. "It's a never-ending battle, but it's definitely helpful. I can sneak into damn near anything."

"Must make being a spy easier."

"You got no idea, brat."

"And expanding the bubble is for energy sensing?"

"Yup. You need to expand it, learn to filter information, and be able to pick out the important things. I'm taking it easy on you now, but it will get dangerous in the future if you can't sense quickly enough."

"Sounds fun."

Leone scoffed in humor. "You're definitely that old wolf's brat, brat."

Hei hummed at that and finished his last rice triangle. He side-eyed the blond looking off into the distance, and waited for her to take a sip of her drink before swiping one of her triangles.

She was caught off guard and spat out her ale. "Hey! I was saving that one!"

"The student has become the master. Should have sensed it."

"I was trying to relax! Gimme that! I can still punt you like a football!"

"Licked it; it's mine now."

"Grah! Come here you!"

The two tussled in the branches as Leone tried not to hit him too hard to avoid damaging the food in his hands.

Grunts turned to laughter soon after as they wrestled like siblings until a new voice cut in.

"Well~, you two seem to be having fun. Can I tag in?" Yoru's voice rang in their ears as they looked up to see the aforementioned woman sitting on a branch, happily eating the last rice triangle.

The two blinked and looked at Hei's empty hand and back to her before Leone groaned with droopy ears. "That was mine…."

Should have been faster~." Yoru sing songed in reply and finished it.

Hei felt bad seeing Leone like that and elbowed her. "Leone."

"Yeah?"

"Revenge is sweet."

He smirked evilly as the blond held a hand to her heart. "You cruel bastard. I'm so proud of you." She slung an arm over his shoulder and noogied him. "We'll make a cat out of you, yet."

"I beg to differ; I'll keep him a wolf. None of you ever listen to me." Yoru idly commented and got a scoff from Yoru.

"Then lead by example, bitch."

The tanned woman ignored her and looked at Hei. "You ready, kid?"

"Is no one going to call me by name?" Hei sighed in reply and got two laughs.

"When it's not as fun getting a rise out of you, sure."

"Earn it by lasting through my training program, unlike most of these washouts." Yoru directed her casual look to the blond and got flipped off.

"As if anyone actually wants to go through that torture. We did it enough to make a difference; no one else is as crazy as you, Yoru."

"Perhaps." She hummed as she locked onto Hei. "Or perhaps I was just missing a student with a spine."

Leone huffed and turned away. "Whatever. I can still deck you into next week."

"And I can run circles around you." Yoru mentioned as the two matches intense gazes.

Hei just let them go off for a moment before coughing. "Not to bother you in your important talk, but I thought we had stuff to do."

"Ha! I knew I liked you, kid." Yoru laughed and hopped to her feet as Leone shot him a pitying look.

"So eager to jump into the pit."

Hei twitched at the blond's comment. "Pit? What pit-." He got cut off as Yoru appeared behind him and grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Now, now, no spoilers. See you later, Leone."

The blond waved. "Survive, brat."

Hei didn't get a chance to respond as his world blurred for seconds before he hit the deck as Yoru dropped him. "Welcome to my little slice of hell, kid. This is where I'll be forging your fleshy little body into something to be feared in the real world."

He shook off the vertigo and stood up, taking in his surroundings.

A large clearing of seemingly normal-looking forest was all around, except for a few additions.

For one, a wide array of gym equipment that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger squeal like a fangirl was arranged to the side.

For another, the majority of the empty central clearing was filled with intermixing lines burned deep into the ground like an arena around two hundred feet in circumference.

"The hell is this place?"

"The village likes to call it the pit." Yoru mused with a humored sway of her tails. "It's where any of my villagers are welcome to come to get a workout in and toughen up. Although, if they showed up more than once a month, we could actually get some faster progress going." She added the last line in annoyance before turning to him. "See the lines on the ground?"

"Kinda hard to miss."

"Oh? Got more sass in you today, hm?"

"Had a good night's sleep."

"Is that so?" Yoru mused as she looked at him but ultimately shrugged. "Well, that might make this more fun then. Every time you sass me in this clearing, that's two hundred push-ups."

"Is that all?" Hei raised an unimpressed brow. "I've been having worse than that since I was eight."

"No, that's not it." Yoru answered with a smirk and made a hand gesture.

The lines throughout the clearing glowed brightly, and before he knew it, Hei was on his back, groaning as it felt like the weight of the world was pressing down on him.

"What the hell?!" The breath was being squeezed from his lungs, and his organs were trembling under the pressure as his blood fought to flow through his veins.

Yoru walked around his prone form with a damn near skip in her step as she smirked. "Within this field, I can switch to any number of pre-set wards I previously created. This is my center of power, kid. Decades of work went into this, and if you think I brought you here to do human-grade workouts, you have another thing coming."

She waved a hand as the pressure let up and air funneled back into Hei's lungs. He wheezed and rolled himself over, but the gravity wasn't gone, just lighter.

"Long ago, body forging was far more dangerous than today. It's still dangerous, but it's been refined in certain circles." Yoru explained calmly with a pointed finger, ignoring Hei's struggling form. "Strength, Hardness, Thermal Tolerance, Elasticity, Density, Restorative Functions, these factors and more had to be considered, and long ago, the only way to train these aspects was to go into hazardous locations, where plenty of beasts and malicious beings wanted a meal."

Hei struggled to his knees and forced his body onto his feet, grunting under the strain but refusing to kneel to the cat lording over him.

Yoru looked into his defiant eyes with unmistakable joy. "Don't move; let your body get used to the strain. Your skeleton can withstand ninety times the gravity if you stay still, but the rest of you can't." She lectured and continued from where she left off. "To go up the stages from Iron, to Steel, to Titanium, and further wasn't only a challenge in will, but daring. To risk it all to empower oneself was the ultimate challenge for the courageous. But that was the past." She looked around her clearing in pride. "In my youth, I made it my goal to train my body as far as possible. I had seen the potential that so many ignored and was baffled by it. I wanted to be fast, faster than anything out there, fast enough to be seen as nothing more than a flash." She flashed him a blinding smile that made his mind spin.

Or at least he thought it was until she poked his head hard enough to knock him over. "Blood doesn't flow properly under downward gravity. Roll around to keep it flowing before you fall unconscious."

Hei internally swore at being on his back again but didn't whine as he followed her instruction. 'The old man put me through worse irritating moments than this.'

Yoru clapped as he rolled around. "Good, good, I'll have you ready for circus acts soon enough."

'I take it back.' Hei thought as he fought gravity to flip the woman off.

Yoru laughed and flicked a finger as gravity eased up some more. "That's 400 pushups now. Catch your breath and start while I continue explaining."

Hei settled his annoyance and got serious. He calmed his breath and focused on his body, testing and flexing various muscles as he rapidly adjusted to gravity so he could actually breathe.

Even Yoru marveled at how quickly he adjusted as he tested each limb and flipped over into pushups, changing the force required with each position and eliminating wasted movements at an extreme pace.

He didn't see her eyes shine with excitement as she concealed the tint to her voice and went on. "In my passion to see the peaks I could reach, I dove into one dangerous environment after another until I dared to go deep into the trenches of Earth's oceans." A fond look crossed her face as she recalled her past. "Out of all the challenging places I went, deep water diving was the most challenging. Not only because of having to hold my breath but the absolutely silent darkness that existed down that far alongside the omnidirectional pressure on my body as I moved through the water created a scenario that even I feared pushing." She shook her head with a slight shiver. "There is some shit down there that has no right existing beyond the dark depths. It tested my will a dozen times over every time I had to force myself down there, but one day I found myself inspired to try an alternative method."

She smirked down at Hei, who had turned his head to listen in. "I realized I could just recreate the conditions I was experiencing in a different way. And so I delved deep into the arts of warding for the sake of my progress. And a century later of gathering every scrap of information I could from various pantheons on warding magic led to me creating my masterpiece." She gestured all around her with pride, and Hei paused between sets to ask.

"A gravity field?"

"Oh? You can talk. Impressive, kid." She gave him an appreciative nod. "But no. This isn't just a gravity field. This is so much more than that. A century ago, a certain devil genius, Ajuka the Satan, even got inspired by my work and paid me handsomely for my notes. What you're feeling right now is only the first level of my masterpiece."

Hei knocked out the pushups and panted as he rolled back onto his back. "I get that you're proud and want to brag, but can we get to the point? The gravity doesn't feel good."

Yoru chuckled and poked at his body with the tip of her foot. "Boo~, taking my fun is bad. But I guess I can't punish you for that." She crouched before him to examine his muscles for something he couldn't tell. "Earth's gravity is set to 1g. The underworld mimics that in general areas for the most part.

Along the Body Forging scale, a score of 10 equals peak human ability. At that stage, you might be able to take a dozen steps under 5g, which is the equivalent of walking around with almost a ton of weight on your shoulders. Humans have been able to mimic up to 9g's of pressure inside rocket ships and advanced jets, but there aren't even moving and will pass out in seconds.

Moving on your own two feet is nothing compared to using tools to do the lifting for you.

A score of 50 equals Iron-Grade, where Mid-Class beings automatically sit when they reach Tier 4. At Iron-Grade, your body has the Strength, Hardness, Thermal Tolerance, Elasticity, Density, and Restorative ability to handle 25g's with some struggle. At Iron-Grade, weapons will have a harder time puncturing your skin and flesh, and the power, speed, and stamina at your disposal will be nothing like it is now.

But getting there without breaking your fragile self at Tier 2 is the difficult part~." She added a teasing quality to the last line and poked his cheek playfully as he swatted at her hand.

"Remind me why this matters if I could just increase my Tier rank, and likewise my body without any effort."

Yoru made a disgusted expression as she stood back up and spat to the side. "The point is to grow a pair."

"Dear teacher, that's not a helpful answer."

"I know that." Yoru grumbled but focused soon after. "Sorry, I hate getting the question. Do you remember that scale for body forging I showed you before?"

Hei recalled the sign she showed him in her office.

[Grading:

Strength: D C B A

Speed: D C B A

Stamina: D C B A

[D = 4] [C = 8] [B = 15] [A = 33.3] ]

"Yeah, the stats from D to A."

She gave him a nod. "Good. There are three real points about the benefits of training the body manually." She held up three fingers for him to see and counted down.

"One is because just moving up the ranks doesn't teach someone to use their body's abilities. Without a foundation to stand on, Mid-Class beings and up are incredibly lopsided between Strength, Speed, and Stamina.

When they evolve, there are not optimized to be equal in all three areas. They are enhanced randomly, and things only worsen as they continue. It will make any form of physical combat force them to adapt to their stats, and trying to change them will be hell.

Two is because even at Tier 2, Iron-Grade isn't the limit. If you can reach 100 points on the scale, you can reach Steel-Grade as a Low-Class being. That means you can physically match or surpass a High-Class being. Since increasing the mana inside your core will be the biggest challenge, this allows you to jump ranks while fighting.

And third and most importantly, when we evolve up the tiers, our body gets saturated in energy to an extreme extent. This happens during the intermediate Tiers between ranks. Tier 3, 5, 7, 9. That energy will give you a boost and shave years off training time."

Hei's eyes shined as he understood her points. "How much of a boost?"

"Depends." Yoru tapped her cheek with a finger in thought. "If you were already Iron-Grade with C and B stats before tier 4, it would increase each stat by 10 points. That kind of permanent boost is nothing to sneeze at, considering how hard it is to increase them by a single point."

"That's not a small boost." Hei did the math in his mind and realized just how amazing what she was offering him was. "And people don't do this because of pain?" He asked incredulously and got a scoff in reply.

"It's not just physical pain, and that alone is bad. I made you do pushups under four times the gravity you're used to, and I could tell your muscles were already straining to the limit."

"But it thought you said a peak human at 10 points on the scale could walk in 5 times gravity?"

"No, you fool." Yoru poked him in the forehead to make her point. "I said a peak human could walk maybe five steps in 5g's. That's standing upright and making tiny movements. Don't compare that to moving around normally, let alone physical exercise." She looked him dead in the eyes. "The path to becoming strong in body requires you to literally feel your bones grinding and pushing against each other. You will not pull muscles; you will tear muscles so badly you'll think they snapped. You will feel the carbon burn inside your lungs like acid. You. Will. Break."

She emphasized the last three words and gave him a moment to let her words sink in before continuing. "The challenge is seeing if you have the will to push through all that. To move on even when your body has long gone beyond its limits and death is knocking on the door. Do you have that will, kid?"

To be fair, Hei really did consider it. He was no stranger to inhuman workouts, and the last few years with the old man saw him pushed to his limits repeatedly.

'But those were human limits.' He thought as a fire burned inside him. 'I've grown beyond them, plateaued in my solo training. I need more. I need the next step. I need a challenge.'

He looked back into Yoru's slit golden eyes and matched her inner fire with an inferno of his own as he unconsciously repeated the words he told her when she pushed him to the limit in their spar. "Bring it on."

Yoru's mind flashed the image of Hei's broken, bleeding, and defeated-self refusing to fall over the one sitting before her, and she couldn't resist the deep laughter that bubbled from within herself.

"Hahahaha! You just keep making this fun, kid! I feel like I finally found a kindred spirit." She reached down and hauled him to his feet. "Now, let's see if you can be a man and back up your big talk."

She dragged him like a limp noodle and dropped him on the arena's edge.

"Do you even do gentle, woman?" Hei grumbled as he picked himself up, no longer affected by increased gravity.

"Shush, I'm concentrating." She waved him off and closed her eyes. The arena rumbled before rapidly beginning to change before Hei's eyes.

From a simple forest clearing to a massive flat piece of hard rubber ground taking up the arena. Bright white circles drew themselves inside the arena until there were five layers, with the inner circles getting smaller in diameter as they went along.

Yoru withdrew her outstretched hand and wiped away a bead of sweat. "Alright!" She clapped her hands and pointed to it. "What you see before you is level 1 of Yoru's badass make-a-man-out-of-you edition training program."

Hei raised a hand.

"Yes, question from the peanut gallery."

"Make-a-man-out-of-you edition?"

"Yes?"

"Are there other editions?"

"Of course! Theres the Make-a-Woman-out-of-you edition, Make-a-Cat-out-of-you, Make-a-scratchpost-out-of-you, and more! I adjust them to all occasions."

"Uhu…."

"Any more questions?"

"Yeah. Level 1?"

"Ah, I see your intelligence stat hasn't gone down from witnessing greatness."

"Can you get serious for a second?!"

Yoru pouted at him, and damn did that pout hit him where it hurt on such a face. "Fine, ruin my fun." She tossed aside the joking tone and pointed a thumb at the field. "Level 1 is flat ground with downward facing gravity. Each layer of these circles will double the previous layer's gravity, with the last layer capping at 25g. If you can do 100 pushups, squats, and sit-ups in the final layer, you're Iron-Grade."

"It's that simple?"

"It's that simple." Yoru nodded. "Work through the layers. You can use any of the weights or gym equipment you see here. Try doing some laps in lower gravity layers. Stay in there as long as you can, and push yourself as hard as you can. Your job is to break yourself. My job is to pull you out when you can't stand up anymore. Do it every day, for five hours a day, and you'll see yourself grow faster than you could have before."

"What comes after level 1?"

"Don't worry about it." Yoru waved a hand airily. "Focus on what's in front of you first. When you reach Iron-Grade, we can move onto level 2."

"Fine." Hei nodded. "So all I have to do is just physically train?"

"Yup~." Yoru shot him a teasing look that set the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up like a porcupine. "Of course, I'll occasionally drop in to spar with you in there. I noticed your hand-to-hand skills could use some work."

"My skills are fine." Hei defended. "You're just freakishly strong."

"While that might be true, it's also true that you were taught to be an assassin, no?"

"So?"

"So, you were taught to end a fight in as quick and lethal as fashion. That won't help when an opponent is equal or above you."

"Then I'll shoot them."

"Don't be a child, Hei." Yoru narrowed her eyes at him. "You're better than that. You have a hole in your skills. Don't deny it; recognize it and work on it before an enemy recognizes it first and uses it against you."

Hei sighed under the chastising tone and nodded. "Sorry, I just don't like the idea of learning a different martial style. My teacher was rigorous in teaching me."

Yoru softened up a bit at that. "That's fair. It's a deadly style; I noticed your movements in our first spar. And you must compliment it beautifully with your pistols, but I neutralized your weapons from the start. I'm going to teach you how to grapple, defend, and fight a lasting battle. You won't be forgetting the style you know; just adapting. Any teacher who deserves your respect will understand that, kid."

Hei thought about the old man and all the things he taught him and knew Yoru had a point. 'I really just want to hold on to everything I can from him. God, he really is like the father I always wanted, isn't he?' Hei shook his head and nodded to Yoru. "Understood."

Yoru's smile returned as she patted his shoulder. "You'll make him proud, kid, trust me. Now, get in there and begin." She judo-flipped him without hesitation, and even in the air, he didn't bother fighting back as he deadpanned at the woman's smug smirk and flipped her off before the first layers double gravity flattened him.

"Two hundred push-ups~!" Yoru sang cheerily. "I'll get you some weights to get warmed up with while you're doing your pre-warm up, warm up."

Hei lay flat on his back under the increased gravity and sighed. 'This should be fun.'

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AN: Part 3 End. Thoughts?

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Response to reviews:

/: danielsnow – Concepts are not in Hei's cards for a long time. I'm glad you enjoyed Leone's part. She's a character that writes herself after a while. Each of the 4 main cats will have their own moments with him.

As for me being on QQ, just search my profile name, it's the same there, Curiosity44. If you still can't find me for some reason, feel free to join the discord server, the links in my Fanfiction profile. I'll give you a direct link through my server.

/: Guest – I'm glad you enjoyed.

/: Noahbadoah – Makes me happy to see others enjoy the lore I went with. As for your idea, I see where you're going with it, but I'm gonna have to veto that. Faith only takes effect in massive quantities, it doesn't work that way sadly. Although, the idea does sound interesting, and it might make for a cool power for a side character or something along the way.

You're always welcome to brainstorm with me.

/: calderoneric758 – Appreciate the ideas. Not a great fit for this story, I already have a plan for him, but that would be cool to see.

/: runelt99 – I get what you mean. More POV's can be fun as hell. For a story like this, I'm just trying to progress far enough that more POV's are applicable. Hell no to the low grade dude ID'ing him. that's like a straight ticket to getting flamed and bashed by people who would make accounts just to show me how annoyed they are even if they didn't leave a single comment when they enjoyed themselves.

/: Druidic – You honor me, my friend.

/: operation meteor – Thank you! Finally another fellow world-builder ally. I love that stuff. My beta readers had to axe like 2/3rd's of the content I wanted to add to the base building, but nooooo, it kills the flow. Who needs plot, I just need to stack my leggo's and be happy. Lol XD.