บท 5: Pushing Mind and Body to the Limit!

[3 months later]

It's been half a year since I woke up, although I've kept up my physical training, what I did the most after the first 3 months was to "train" my brain.

-How?- You may ask.

Well. What I did is to keep sensing stuff with my spirit, I tried to use it as much as possible. It is as if you saw things in a 360 degree angle. You could say that I could see from the 3rd point of view while you see things from the center maybe?

Anyway, after many nosebleeds, I somewhat got the hang of it. It's as if I could see every movement around me with incredible detail but only for 3 meters of distance.

Although I can "see" in black and white only, the sound and smell along with other senses are what gives it more detail, like if they added color to the image… although I can't see color still but you get what I mean.

I kept sensing everything around me to the most minor thing, one thing I had in mind was to push my brain to the point that I could maintain the spirit sense up all time with no effort.

I wanted to do it for one idea that I got. I could technically use the spirit sense to be conscious of my muscles movements all the time, which may sound simple but it is not at all. After all, there are many fibers of muscle in the human body.

Even if I have control over them without spiritual sense, what I did was mostly train them to get rid of useless extra movements. And I still have to concentrate to make my organs do certain things.

What I want is to be able to recreate any reaction on my body, like getting hit, stabbed, and other things. You may be able to tell what I want to do… or maybe not. What I'm trying to do is to do the same as a certain 18-year-old Grappler that doesn't actually grapple…

Imagination Training.

But if I want to do that, my mind must be able to keep up with all the information that I want my body to experience, as I'm trying to make many reactions on my body, even though my memories and experiences also have a big part to play, but I already have that covered. As I said before, I had worn weights on my old body for years, so if I could recreate the strain and resistance that they bring to my muscles and joints… I could technically train without equipment.

And if it's about the pain of getting hit or stabbed… Well, unfortunately, I am an expert.

And this also helps with my goal of getting stronger than my old body before breaking its limiter. As I literally can spar against the old me, the one that could kick an armored car to its side, the one that could hold 2 metal beams without problems. I will beat that monster before going back to society.

____________________________________________________________________________

[1 Month Later]

I managed to keep my spiritual sense up all the time, although I decided to only sense my body and not my surroundings, so I can not only control my body perfectly all the time when I want to, but I can also do things that I thought to be impossible before.

I had to concentrate to make my organs do some things, and I also had to do the same to move certain muscles in my body individually. But after making my brain process big amounts of info, it got used to the strain... I can't believe that I really trained it like a muscle…

But anyway, I noticed that I can think and process thoughts a lot clearer than before, as I can easily think of other things unrelated to an activity that I'm doing, things that require me to concentrate can be done with one single thought.

So here I am, in a start pose ready to run. What I'm trying to do is the Cockroach Dash. The technique requires maximum relaxation, you could say that is like how you relax your arms before throwing a jab, and suddenly use explosive power to strike. Just take that to an extreme level.

'Relax your muscles, joints, organs, cells even… imagine yourself melting…'

At that moment, I really felt like I was becoming liquid. But during that state I was almost losing consciousness because of the extreme relaxation.

When I felt like fainting, I knew what I had to do...

*BOOM!*

I snapped my muscles back into place.

I became a blur… No. it's better to say that everything around me became a blur, not even my incredible senses could keep up with the speed for a short moment. But before my senses could pick up with my movement...

*crash!*

I crashed into a tree… Well. more like I went through it and kept going for a few meters.

Even after finally stopping, I could not stand up. It wasn't that I had a concussion or anything, but what do you think happens when your body starts going at incredible speeds out of nowhere? And not only that, but you also lose speed almost coming to a sudden stop and yet keep rolling on the ground like a ragdoll.

It's not just pain, which I am already used to. But it's my organs… They are still in place but they are quite shaken... I felt like vomiting but I held it all in.

'Seems like not only I have to make my senses and instincts keep up with that speed, but also my organs, so as to not be incapacitated in a fight. Hehehe, I haven't finished this training and I already got an idea of what to do when I get used to this speed'

____________________________________________________________________________

[2 Months Later]

I'm now able to sense things around me in 2 meters, including my body of course. And I discovered something new, even after doing the Super Dash (Only called it Cockroach Dash for reference) I realized that I can still see clearly with spiritual sense, so as long as something which isn't as fast as light or my own consciousness, I will still be able to react to it… I think.

Since my senses have gotten used to the new bursts of speed, the same goes to my organs, although I had a lot of internal bleeding at first. I've been practicing to do the Super Dash in a standing position without having to concentrate much, from there I will be integrating it into my footwork.

____________________________________________________________________________

[1 Month Later]

*BOOM*

I dropped to the floor gasping for air after doing Super Dash constantly for an entire day… Well. More like Super Step now, it uses a lot of stamina, but I've managed to do it with a single thought. And this also helped me to push my limits when it comes to stamina.

I will also have to find a proper way to make the Super Step and Super Dash as silent as possible.

There is something else great about my body.

Maybe because I had to fight almost every day for 2 years before waking up, but I barely slept… Actually. More like I barely need sleep. Aside from that, I can also recover really fast from exhaustion and injuries.

Either way, that means that I have more time to train.

____________________________________________________________________________

[1 Month Later]

I started to replicate the feeling of weights on my body, on every limb and my torso. It was a bit weird but I got the hang of it quickly. I could really feel the strain and resistance on my joints and muscles.

It made me mentally and physically exhausted even more often, but I did like always. 200% effort to the point that I fainted multiple times.

I got many nosebleeds because of this too… again.

But I surely felt it, I was becoming stronger. I even started to make my muscles and bones stronger by tackling, punching, and kicking the poor mountain, the human body is quite simple. The more you break it down, the stronger it becomes… only injuries to a certain extent, of course, that is only if you have a normal body, but with the one I have seems that's not the case.

I hope the mountain doesn't break down before finishing my training.

____________________________________________________________________________

[1 Month Later]

After exhausting myself many times, I realized something… My breathing, I know how to breathe of course and I also know how to do breathing exercises. But what I mean is, can I take it to the next level like other things in my training?

I sat down trying to concentrate on my breathing this time, the oxygen that goes from my lungs, and from then it goes through my entire body.

'Sense it.'

*Breath in*

I wanted to find a way of breathing that brings the most oxygen to my muscles. I wanted to create a technique. After pushing my spirit sense to the limit, I could sense it, the flow of oxygen, not the oxygen itself really, as sensing something so small is outside of my reach for now. Even if I concentrate on quality rather than quantity when it comes to my Spiritual Sense.

I could see how my muscles gained life, and then...

*BOOM!*

I easily made a hole in the ground.

*Breath Out*

'I think I get it.'

From then on, I started to use the new style of breathing in every activity. Following that, I tried to increase my lung capacity also.

I went to the lake many times to train underwater, I was holding my breath and doing exercises. Using the water resistance was pretty good for training too.

'I should've thought of this before. Even though replicating the feeling of water resistance on my body doesn't feel quite right.'

____________________________________________________________________________

[5 Months Later]

My Spiritual Sense has reached 15 meters, I can sense farther if I try but what I want is to keep it up without the need to focus on it.

Like literally making it a radar of sorts.

But now, time to spar with the old me. The reason I waited this long was that I simply wasn't strong enough to put up a fight.

The training with weights on, while being underwater plus holding my breath definitely helped my endurance and strength.

So I started to imagi- No. I started to remember.

Black hair, black eyes, tan skin, 192cm tall, not built like a tank but not slim either. Bullet marks on the stomach, chest, left leg, and right arm. Small and big cuts all over the body… a body full of scars, except for his back, as he never gave his back to an enemy in any fight he's ever been in. He is in a Taekwondo fighting stance, as it's better for tall people to use kicks.

That is Alan Miller.

Then there is the new me, Shiro Takeshi.

White snow hair, bright yellow eyes, white skin, 135cm tall, not skinny anymore but only slim muscles. Many small and big scars, but with new ones on knuckles, elbows, knees, legs, and shoulders. My stance being different clearly, a low hand boxing stance to allow me to kick, but most importantly. My leading shoulder covering my chin from any hooks from blindspots… Although I already have Spiritual Sense meaning that I have no blind spots, I can still use my shoulder to parry attacks.

I "took" my weights off.

*Breath in*

A fight with me of the past, if I have to compare myself with him in an all-out fight, I would say that I can maybe defeat him with my new techniques, but I won't do that, I want to go against him in a fight of pure speed, strength, and endurance. No techniques. Without them, I may be only half as strong as the old me, but I can definitely keep up with speed.

*Breath Out*

I ran towards him, I made a feint with a punch and tried to sweep his legs with a low kick, he retreated while aiming a kick towards my face. I went lower, almost with my face touching the ground to avoid it.

We both failed to strike each other, while I was getting up he aimed a karate punch from the waist towards my face, I barely avoided it while moving forward instead of retreating.

While getting closer I twisted my waist and aimed a high kick towards his temple, he blocked by putting his palm between his temple and my foot.

I got away before being grabbed but he followed me with a low tackle. I had to jump over him but after that, he was behind me and so I twisted my body in the air to block the kick directed at my side.

After landing on the ground, he aimed a low kick towards my knees, I got closer while trying to elbow his thigh only to come out short of reach. I almost got a knee to my nose because of this.

Even if it was my imagination, my body was actually injured and some bones even cracked.

My spar went for 3 hours straight…

I fell on the floor exhausted, 'I could only get 4 solid hits…. While I got my ass kicked.'

I looked around, I was near the mountain and had many boulders around me, everything was destroyed, my surroundings were all bloodied… With my blood of course, I had many wounds on me, with many bruises and my knuckles, elbows, knees, and feet were all bleeding.

I stopped the bleeding by making my liver release some adrenaline.

*Sigh*

I did pretty well, I have less reach with my short limbs, so even if I can keep up on speed. I can't take much advantage of it, maybe that I'm a smaller target? But that's it.

'Looks like I'll be in this forest for another year.'

____________________________________________________________________________

[1 Month Later]

*SLAP!!!*

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

After screaming in agony for 10 seconds, I almost passed out…

What am I doing? I am "training" to tolerate pain in this body… I basically used Whip Strike on my thighs, one of the most sensitive places of the skin… no way I'm using it on my crotch.

Whip Strike is a technique that involves making your body as loose and fluid as possible, allowing you to use your arms like a whip, and you can deliver strikes on the largest organ of the human body, the skin. Even if you think that you know pain, you will find out that it was a lie.

I kept doing my "training" with one thought in mind.

'I'm not an M, I'm not an M, I'm not an M, I'm not an M, I'm not an M, I'm not an M.' Like some sort of mantra.

I had to at least not be incapacitated for more than 1 or 2 seconds, that was my goal.