Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to SIU. Except for my OC and now this guy.
Chapter 5
"What are you doing here?"
"No reason."
"Why are you in my room."
"Waiting."
"You could have at least brought something for me to eat if you were just going to be a creep."
"It's coming."
"What?"
A few knocks came from the door, to reveal Bam with a tray of food. He quickly gave his greetings, then quickly set up a pulley system over one of the lights with the tray of food above Endorsi. She didn't look impressed.
"What are you trying to do?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.
"I can't give you the food, unless you sign these papers." Bam held up a couple friend lists, then slowly lowered down the tray of food.
"Did you think a meal would trick me just because I'm hungry? Don't look down on a princess of Jahad!" She tried reaching for the tray just before Bam pulled it back up.
"I mean, I was just stretching since I've been in this bed this whole!" She failed to grab the food once more as Bam lowered the tray and pulled it up before she could grab it. She glared at Bam then moved her gaze over towards me. I just shrugged, a small grin growing on my face.
"Eel is good for your stamina. If you could just sign here…" Bam tried to persuade her.
"I don't eat meat, I thought I told you that before."
"But you look so thin and pale, there's no harm in eating this sort of thing from time to time."
Endorsi seemed to buy that, as she gave a sly smile. "Well… I am, you're right. Yeah, I should eat meat from time to time." She continued on about how she wished to get fat but couldn't. Bam glanced at me with a slight look of disbelief.
She began to complain about not being first on the list, while Bam tried to reason to her so he could give her the food. The hand holding onto the lever slipped and the tray of food fell down on top both of their heads. I stifled a laugh and made my way towards the door.
"What the hell are you doing?" She shouted at Bam, then directed her voice at me. "And where the hell are you going? You don't get to just leave for free! Get me another tray of Eel!"
"Could we try something a little different this time?" I asked Hwaryun as we made our way towards the training room. "I think I'm getting a hang of shinsu and I wanted to try putting it into the training."
She looked at me for a moment before slightly nodding. "If you want to test it out, we can start with some sparring this time."
We opened the doors to the training room, to find Bam and Khun working on their respective abilities for their position. Khun had 2 lighthouses around him but only one he was focusing on, while Bam was practicing on creating and releasing bang.
I looked to Khun. "You guys are training now too?"
"Well, it's better than doing nothing. Bam wanted to work on some shinsu control and suggested we come here." Khun responded without looking up. He seemed intensely focused on the lighthouse he was operating.
"So even a person as brilliant as you, a person from the great ten families, has to do some training sometimes." Hwaryun was on the edge of gloating.
"Ah shut up. Boredom is the curse of the nobility. You people wouldn't understand." Khun retorted as Bam came over to give his greetings.
"How goes it Bam? Shinsu getting easier to control?" I asked him.
"Well, sort of?" He gave me a confused look. "Mr. Laure gave me some tips about shinsu, but it's still hard to fully manipulate. It's sort of like having new arms you have to control."
"You're getting there though. Way better control than I have at least." I began stretching. "Hwaryun and I were going to go through a quick spar if you don't mind. I'm going to try out some body reinforcement."
"No problem, I was about to take a break anyways." Bam grinned as he took a seat beside Khun.
"Thanks." I smiled back.
Hwaryun and I started to make our way to the floor. I slowed my breathing, doing my best to feel the shinsu flowing through my body. I had played with the idea of myself being an irregular, but doubted it considering my lack of affinity for shinsu. I didn't mind though, mostly because I enjoyed the hard work that came with learning how to control shinsu. During class and any time I found outside of training and meals, I would try and improve my shinsu control, but each time it would be incredibly difficult to maintain and manipulate. It was like trying to pick up sand with chopsticks.
The amount of concentration I had to hold in order to move even the slightest bit of shinsu was exhausting, yet I still found a small amount of pride whenever I had done it. Over the past few days, I've been able to influence the flow of shinsu within my body to a manageable extent. Body reinforcement should be tough but not unimaginable.
"I'll give you 20 seconds. Do your best to maintain the body reinforcement for as long as you can." Hwaryun spoke out. I nodded silently.
Alright remember what you learned from class. Strengthen the shinsu within your body by condensing it. Keep the flow moving while shaping it into what you want. I thought back to the shinsu I had seen before. A glorious flow that seemed to be living. Grab onto it, don't let it go. I prepared my stance, unable to fully control the shinsu but making do with what I had.
Khun didn't mind when Bam had asked him to accompany him down to one of the training rooms. It wasn't like he had something to do. When he asked Bam why he wanted to use the same training room as Shun and Hwaryun, Bam simply responded that there was a high possibility to meet them there, and that it motivated him to see other people training as well. Khun supposed he wouldn't mind the company either. There were still things he wanted to figure out about the two.
Moving two lighthouses was still a little difficult, but he was getting more and more used to it. He began looking at recent news from the inner tower as Bam started to practice creating and releasing bangs. Most of the things he saw on the news was bullshit though. But there were still some announcements that Khun liked to have knowledge of.
Large numbers of shinhueh have been gathering in groups on the lower floors, regulars are warned to stay away. A new division commander has been appointed in the 3rd squadron. Workshop advertisements…
He didn't bring too much attention to the other two that walked into the training room, still focusing on his lighthouse. Another FUG syndicate taken down. Team Jolden, a team made up of mostly members of the ten great families is climbing rapidly. Now at floor 28. Hmm… nothing that exciting today.
When Khun decided that he was finished, he looked up from his lighthouse to see Hwaryun and Shun getting ready for their spar. Something felt a little off about the way Shun was attempting body reinforcement, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. What is he doing…?
Hwaryun rushed at him, swinging her staff towards the top part of his body. Shun ducked under but had trouble recovering as he jumped to the side. He threw a punch, but it was too slow, as Hwaryun easily defected it with her staff. She then moved in to strike his chest with her other hand. Khun scrunched his eyebrows together.
"Is there something wrong Mr. Khun?" Bam asked.
"I don't really know… but I'm pretty sure Shun isn't doing his body reinforcement properly. The flow of shinsu in his body is working against him." Khun replied. "His movement is so stiff, geez what is he-"
"Shun! Don't force it! The shinsu in your body is getting too restricted!" Khun shouted out.
"What-whoa-is that supposed to mean?" Shun shouted back while barely dodging Hwaryun's advances.
"It means that you're slowing the shinsu in your body too much. Flow control is all about maintaining the flow manually, then changing it to how you want."
"How do I change it then?" He tried his best to create some distance between himself and his opponent. But Hwaryun didn't stop her advances, still attacking viciously with her gold staff.
"Miss Hwaryun isn't slowing down at all. Isn't that a little dangerous?" Bam breathed out.
"Although it is risky, body reinforcement is all about maintaining and refining the shinsu so that your body is as tough as it can be. Enemies won't give you any time to focus and I think those two are training with that in mind. If Shun really did have an issue with it, he wouldn't try to work it into a spar right away." Khun explained. "It's very practical, the way this training exercise is playing out. But it does seem like Shun is rushing into it."
Khun turned his attention back to the spar. "Try focusing your control as a sort of guidance for the shinsu. Let the flow direct your actions, then eventually blend your control and shinsu together."
Shun didn't reply, instead concentrating on blocking Hwaryun's hits. He was loosening up, moving quicker to dodge and retaliate on openings. But there was still no proper body reinforcement involved.
"He has improved since the crown game." Khun noted. "There's more deliberation and awareness to his movements."
Bam smiled. "I'm glad. He seemed to be training hard every moment he got. Wouldn't you say he's a little odd Mr. Khun? I know that other people train a lot like Mr. Shibisu or Mr. Hatz, but it seems like Mr. Shun has something else driving him. I don't know if that makes sense though."
"No, I agree," Khun replied. "I would even say he's desperate for something, I just don't know what. There's also Hwaryun to consider. For as much effort Shun has been putting in, she also has been putting in a lot of time. I don't know why a regular would train someone else just for the sake of training them."
"Maybe she's just a nice teammate?"
"If that's so, where is their other teammate? It just feels like they know something that everyone else doesn't." Just as Khun finished up what he was saying, he noticed a change in the shinsu within Shun.
It wasn't as constricted as before, actually flowing quite smoothly. Over time, his movements gained speed and suddenly it was Hwaryun on the defense. Shun's strikes grew heavily, a resounding sound of a fist meeting a metal staff bouncing within the training room. He got the hang of it a lot faster than I thought he would. Shun sent out a barrage of fists towards Hwaryun before landing a clean blow to her abdomen with his foot. She flew a few feet unable to get back up, while Shun froze up, the flow of shinsu rapidly coursing through his body.
Khun readied his lighthouse. "Bam, quickly grab her. I don't know what's going on, but we might need to get away quickly." He focused intently on the unmoving Shun.
Dormant power? Just like during the crown game. This could be bad.
"Hey kid."
I couldn't see who spoke. "Who the hell-?"
"In here buddy. You got some control over the shinsu, letting us communicate finally."
In my mind? Who are you?
"I'm that thing you so fondly call a ball. I'm not really sold on the idea of being called that, so how about you call me Z from now on."
Z? Have you been in my head this entire time? Why are you only talking now?
"I just told you how. The contact you made with the shinsu within your body allowed for you to hear my voice. Although I did straighten out what you were doing, it wasn't a terrible first try. But the Khun kid was right, you were holding the shinsu back too much. Could have permanently damaged your body."
Wait, with you in my head… does that mean-
"Yeah. I've spent my time looking over your knowledge as well as helping you remember what you need to remember. It's…interesting to say the least. I never expected a princess of Jahad to go so out of line. Assuming this knowledge is accurate for the future."
Oh… I'm sorry, this is just a bit surreal. I have so many questions that I don't know which ones to ask first.
"That's fine. This isn't exactly the best place for a chat anyway. You should get back to your spar with your friends."
Friends? Ok…alright, I guess. I… I don't really know…
"If you're going to get through this tower, you're going to need them. And it's going to be a lot easier on both of us if you start calling them friends."
Hold on, what do you mean, both of us?
"Hey, Shun. You there?"
I shook my head, hearing the sound of Khun's voice. So he really is in my head. "Yeah, I'm here. What happened?"
"That's what we want to know." Khun had his lighthouse directed towards me with Bam helping Hwaryun get off the floor. "You were able to do the body reinforcement, but when that happened the shinsu pressure around you increased and you stopped moving. It's gone down now, but you sure you aren't going to blow up anytime soon?"
"Yeah, I think I should be fine." I went over to check on Hwaryun. "You alright?"
She looked up at me. "Just winded. What got into you?" Her breathing was ragged.
"I heard someone talking to me in my head. He was saying something about being able to talk to me since I made some progress with the shinsu in my body." I didn't have to think twice about telling them what had just happened.
"You sure it wasn't from your pocket or something?" Khun asked. He let his lighthouse down.
"I'm sure. This was definitely in my head." I responded.
"That's really weird. Do you know what it's about Mr. Khun?" Bam turned to him.
"I've never heard of something like this. Though I doubt anyone would report this in if they did have a similar experience. We really don't have anything to go off of." Khun gave of his thoughts. "Anyway, Shun, I'm just going to say that you need to watch yourself. Judging from what happened here and what happened during the crown game, you seem to have massive amounts of power within your body. But while it overwhelms most the regulars here, it can inflect a lot of damage to you as well."
I nodded in agreement. "I think I get that now."
Hwaryun hit my arm with my staff. "It doesn't look like we can do a lot about it right now, so let's continue the spar."
"You know, for a person that doesn't really show a lot of emotion, you really are spiteful." I rubbed my arm. As the training session went on, I didn't try to use any body reinforcement again. I was distracted with the idea that Headon's gift, turned out to be this Z person, further solidified my doubts about being in the tower.
A/N
Thanks for the follows from Addu, Coldsan, Cuervo Blanco, EcstaticReader, Existential ERROR, Nayrcon, PCheshire, PopperPaper, Regend, Virgil42, Harrsande, septeon, and ze22ro! Many thanks!
Any comments or suggestions are really appreciated!
I'm really uploading this at 4am huh.
Edit: 07/17/2021 It's still 4am damn it.
Thanks for reading!