Inaki watched as the Gael Spear-Sage meditated under a tree.

“I see that this tree no longer has any fruit,” The Spear-Sage said. “Have Trish and Nilun been delivering your food to you on time?”

“Yes sir,” Inaki said. “I have had enough food.”

“Then why did you feel the need to eat all of the fruit in this tree?” Yan Gael said.

“I was using the tree to train sir,” Inaki said.

“Oh, let me think,” Yan said. “You would hit the tree with your sword, and then when a fruit would drop, you would try to slash it.”

“Yes sir,” Inaki said.

“Oh, me and my friends used to play a similar game,” Yan stood up, and picked an apple out of a bag. He tossed it at Inaki. “We used to hit the tree, and instead of cutting the fruit, we used to try catching it on the flat of our spearhead, which should be easier for you since you’re using a sword.”

“Yes sir,” Inaki said.

“Come on,” Yan said. “Let’s play.”

Without giving Inaki the chance to ask why he was here, or what he wanted from Inaki, the man began throwing apples into the sky.

Inaki ran at one apple to try and catch it on the flat of his sword, but he was too slow. “Try again,” Yan said.

He threw another apple into the sky, and Inaki once again ran behind it, trying to catch it. This time, he was successful in catching the apple on his sword, but he couldn’t balance it, the apple fell off his sword.

“Come on,” Yan said. “You should be able to balance it for at least five seconds.” Yan threw another apple at Inaki. Inaki failed to catch it with his sword. Again and again Yan would throw apples at Inaki, and again and again, Inaki would fail. After about twelve or so apples, Inaki finally caught an apple on the flat of his sword.

“Come on,” Yan said. “Hold it.”

Inaki held the apple, straining his shoulders and arms to hold his sword up with the apple on it. Yan began counting.

“One,” Yan said. Inaki’s arm was already revolting at holding his sword straight.

“Two,” Yan said. Inaki focused all of the strength he had into holding his sword in front of him, and focused on keeping his blade balanced.

“Three,” Yan said. Inaki was sure that he wasn’t counting to seconds, he was counting much slower. Inaki held his blade up, but his shoulder began cramping.

“Four,” Yan said. With only one more ‘second’ left on the countdown, Inaki dropped the apple.

“Good, good,” Yan said. “A few more tries, and you’ll be able to hold it up. But for now, I’ll give you a short break.”

“Why are you here?” Inaki asked, sighing, falling onto the grass.

Yan said, “I’ll get straight to the point, I want you to defeat my son.”

“What,” Inaki said, confused.

“Yes,” Yan said. “I need you to defeat my son in your duel with him.”

“How could I,” Inaki said.

“That’s because you used to be able to defeat him,” Yan said. “Surely you can learn to defeat him again.”

“I meant how could I kill your son,” Inaki said. In front of his eyes came the mountain of corpses, the Yaroka swordsmen all out for his blood. Inaki could never kill again.

“When did I say anything about killing him,” Yan said. “I only spoke about defeating him.”

“But our duel is to the death,” Inaki said.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Yan said. “You could make him forfeit.”

“Sir,” Inaki said. “I have barely met your son, and I know that he would rather die than forfeit.”

“That’s for you to figure out,” Yan said. “If you kill my son in your duel, I will not hold it against you for he will be trying to kill you too. But it is my humble request as a father. Please save my son.”

“Save your son from what?” Inaki said.

“His foolish quest for revenge,” Yan said.

“Why are you asking me,” Inaki said.

“Because you know firsthand what the foolish pursuit of revenge does to a man,” Yan said.

Was it worth it, Taral’s voice entered Inaki’s mind again. No. Inaki thought.

“This is all presuming one thing,” Inaki said. “That I will even be able to defeat your son.”

“That’s where I come in,” Yan said. “I see that you have befriended the Woodens of the clan, so along with them, I will also help you train.”

“You are going to train me to defeat your son?” Inaki said. “I won’t be able to get good enough to be able to defeat your son in less than two months?”

“Why,” Yan said.

“Because I lost all my talent,” Inaki said. “The injury took everything away from me. It’s better that I just let your son kill me.”

“So you are saying that there are no swordsmen who became good without any talent?” Yan asked. Gonten’s face appeared in Inaki’s mind as he thought about a swordsman with no talent becoming a great swordsman.

“If being the best at anything is a race, then talent is just a head-start. The man who runs the hardest is the one who wins in the end,” Yan said. “You lost your head-start, but you can still run, Inaki.”

“I run,” Inaki said. “I run everyday, and yet I fall flat on my face.”

“You’ve never had a master have you?” Yan said. “Well, I will show that a master’s responsibility is to teach his student how to run.”

“Why do you want to train me?” Inaki said.

Yan said. “It is my responsibility to make sure that my guest comes out alive.”

“Your son wouldn’t describe me as a guest,” Inaki said.

“Who is the Sage,” Yan said. “Me or Farrow?”

“You,” Inaki said.

“I see you as a guest, so you are a guest,” Yan said.

“How are you going to take me from nothing to an Iron in less than two months,” Inaki said.

“You don’t worry about that,” Yan said. “But let me tell you this. Once again, you’ve never had a master before. Which is why I will tell you this. During training, you will follow my every order, I don’t care if you are about to die, or if you are going to maim yourself, you will not stop the training exercise.”

“Yes sir,” Inaki said.

“So,” Yan said. “Let’s start.”

“Yes,” Inaki said.

“Round two, of catching apples,” Yan said, and blew a whistle from his mouth.

This time, the apples came flying at Inaki instead of from above. Inaki tried to raise his sword, but his timing was off, the apple hit Inaki in the nose. He stepped back and covered his nose.

“Heads up,” Yan said, and threw another apple at Inaki, which hit Inaki’s hand which was covering his nose.

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Inaki moved his hand and another apple came flying at him. Inaki raised his sword, and just barely deflected it with his blade.

“I didn’t tell you to deflect it,” Yan said. “I told you to catch it.”

He threw another apple at Inaki. Inaki raised his sword to try and cover his face, but he was too slow, the apple hit him in the face. The throw was extremely hard and Inaki felt blood leak from his nose.

Inaki quickly got back up as another apple flew at him. Inaki raised his sword to block it, and then tried to twist his sword to get the apple on the flat of his blade, but it didn’t work, the apple just hit the ground.

“Try again,” Yan screamed, throwing apples at Inaki.

This went on for another hour. How many apples has he got? Was the only thought on Inaki’s mind by the time the round had ended. In the hour, Inaki had realized that he was getting better and better at deflecting the apples, even though not once he was able to catch the apple on the flat of his sword.

“Take a break for two minutes,” Yan said.

Inaki did not complain about the short break. He sat down and chugged down water. Yan carefully handed Inaki a vial.

“What is this,” Inaki asked.

“Extremely dilute Urima Herb mixture,” Yan said. “To make sure that you can train as vigorously as I am going to make you.”

Inaki put just a drop of the water on his palm, then covered his bleeding nose, busted lip, and blistered hands. Just one drop was enough to get rid of most of the pain.

“Good,” Yan said. “That’s all I can use for the next two months.”

Inaki put down the vial, and stepped forward, ready to begin once again. He considered chugging that entire vial to heal the injury that took his talent in the first place. You’ll need an entire stalk to heal an injury as dire and as old as yours. Inaki remembered what Yaz had said.

“We’re not doing the apple exercise now,” Yan said. “In fact, you can put your sword down.”

“What,” Inaki asked.

“Oh,” Yan said. “You swordsmen are very narrow minded, you train only with your sword. But your problem isn’t that, it is that your body won’t respond to you like it used to. Begin treating that, and your skills in the sword should start coming back to you. I am going to make sure that your body starts listening to you again.”

“So what do you want me to do,” Inaki asked.

“Give me a hundred push ups,” Yan said.

“A hundred?” Inaki asked. Inaki was unsure if he could do ten.

“You can take ten second breaks every ten push ups,” Yan said. “Come on, don’t delay.”

Without arguing Inaki got onto the ground, and began the push-ups. At first, the push ups came easy, he let his body move down, then pushed up, with his elbows tucked behind, his arms at shoulder level. After the fifth push up, that’s when things became painful.

Inaki’s elbows began burning, and his shoulders began aching. He felt as if someone had punched him in his core, and he felt like he was going to tear his chest.

By the tenth one, he was unsure if his arms were usable anymore, and he had to do ten times this amount of pushups. Even his legs were tired of holding him up at this point.

Inaki fell, and took a rest. Yan came over, and began counting the seconds. This time he counted way too fast, he counted ten seconds in the time it took Inaki to count four.

“Come on,” Yan said, “Continue.”

Inaki got back up and began his push ups. After the fifteenth push up, Inaki was having trouble forcing his body back up.

“Are you having problems?” Yan said.

“Yes,” Inaki said, trying his best to push himself up.

“This might give you some help.” Yan pulled out a spearhead from his bag, and then put it under Inaki. If he fell too low on the ground, then the spearhead would go through his chest. “I think this should give you enough motivation to be able to push yourself up completely.”

Inaki thought he was going to cry.

In the eighty-five remaining push ups, Inaki nearly got stabbed by the spearhead eighty-five times. Each time Inaki got through his ten push ups before he could take a break, Yan started counting faster and faster. By the time Inaki reached his ninetieth push up, when Yan had counted ten, Inaki had barely counted two.

But with his arms burning, feeling like he was going to vomit, his chest feeling like it was going to rip in half, Inaki finished his push ups, and fell on his back, just beside the spear head.

“That was good,” Yan said. “Only about an hour to do a hundred push ups. You can take a two minute break.”

Inaki did not complain about the short break once again.

“Now, let’s do some squats,” Yan said. “No, that would be too simple for you, let’s try duck walking. Take a hundred rounds of the garden, and no cheating, go around the whole thing from the edge.”

Inaki bent down as if he was doing a squat and sat in that position. Then he began walking while in that position. Instantly the muscles of his legs began burning. After only a few steps he fell back, hitting the ground.

“It happens, you still don’t have good control over your muscles. Get back up, and keep going. I have all day. You’ll be shocked by how much free time a Sage can create by just saying I’m meditating.”

Inaki got back up, and began the duck-walk once again, “Have you met Takehito?” Inaki asked.

“Oh, of course I have met him, what a delight,” Yan said.

“For some reason I thought you’d be friends,” Inaki said.

“Oh, I knew him before the bastard turned in his sword for shears, if you think he’s fun now, imagine how fun he was without all the philosophical musings.”

“What happened to him,” Inaki asked.

“That’s a story for him to tell you, you continue your duck-walk,” Yan said.

Inaki’s legs burned as he did the exercise. He didn’t want to focus on himself, so he looked around and saw that Yan had an apple on the edge of spear, and was holding it from the very end, trying to balance it.

Hard to believe that this man spawned Farrow.

“What happened to Farrow,” Inaki asked. “How is he so different from you and your daughter?”

“I made an idiotic mistake,” Yan said. “I went for my pilgrimage when he was just born. I should’ve gone on my pilgrimage at least when he was seven or eight.”

“When did you leave,” Inaki asked.

“When he was four,” Yan said. “Just after our war ended, and your father went from Diamond to Platinum to Sage in just a year. I should’ve been there for him when he was suffering after my father’s death.”

By the time Inaki had finished the tenth round of the garden, his legs had grown numb. He didn’t think it was possible for him to make his legs continue moving, but he forced himself. He fell back into the dirt for what felt like the hundredth time. He felt like he was going to start seizing, but before he could, Yan stepped to him, and rubbed only a drop of the Urima Herb mixture on his forehead. Inaki stopped seizing.

“Come on, you don’t have time to waste,” Yan said. “My son is going to kill you by the time you’re done resting.”

Inaki forced himself to keep walking. With all the energy in his body he kept walking, and finished the eleventh round, then the twelfth, and the thirteenth. Eventually he finished the hundredth. But by then he felt like his legs were going to fall off. His calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes were all screaming in pain, and he felt like his legs would cramp up if he even thought about moving them.

“Take a two minute break,” Yan said.

Inaki collapsed to the ground, trying to catch his breath for the two minutes he was given.

“Now, let’s go on a jog,” Yan said. “I will run behind you, and if I catch you, I will stab you.”

Inaki had spent some amount of time running away from swordsmen, and then running away from Farrow, so he didn’t think that would be much of a problem. But with his leg muscles feeling like they were going to melt probably not.

Yan opened the garden gate, allowing Inaki to run out, and without telling him that his time had begun, he hit Inaki with the butt of his spear.

Without being told, Inaki began running out of the gate. Inaki’s arms and chest and abs and legs were all already exhausted from the push ups, and the duck walk, but now Inaki had to run too. Inaki was still a little hungover for Okan’s sake.

Inaki ran through the city, he began slowing down a little bit, but as he felt a spearhead graze his back, he began running faster. He forgot the soreness in his muscles when he felt the drop of blood dripping down his back.

“I didn’t think you were going to take your metaphor of running hard literally,” Inaki said. “Is this how you are going to train me, with a threat of getting stabbed. ”

“You will also have the threat of falling,” Yan said. “But that is for your later exercises.”

“How long are you going to make me run,” Inaki yelled. The streets of Gael were still mostly empty since it was early morning time.

“Until you get tired enough that I actually stab you, I guess,” Yan said.

Inaki continued running, and ran as best as he could. His legs burned—his muscles already exhausted—and he slowed down, but as more blood began leaking down his back from a shallow stab, Inaki found the strength to run fast again.

Inaki kept running, and kept trying to push himself, but soon enough, Yan’s spear broke more flesh than comfortable. Inaki hit the ground on his face, but he was running fast enough that he ended up rolling on the ground, and when he stopped, he was facing the sky. His legs were definitely non-functional at that point.

“Good, good,” Yan said, "you managed to run for almost an hour straight. Now, you can rest for the time it takes me to carry you back.”

Yan picked up Inaki and carried him back to Inaki’s room. Inaki’s legs burned so much that he thought they would never work anymore. Inaki had to fight for each breath, he hadn’t realized how exhausted he was.

Yan dropped Inaki onto the grass.

“Stand up,” Yan said.

Inaki tried his best to stand up, but his legs just didn’t cooperate. Neither did his hands. Nor did any other muscle of his body.

“Come on, stand up,” Yan said. “I don’t have all day.”

“I am trying,” Inaki said.

Yan stepped down and picked up Inaki. He helped him stand straight. Inaki tried his best to stay standing, but he couldn’t. He hit the grass once again.

“I am guessing this is too much for a day one,” Yan said.

Inaki didn’t have the energy to say another word. He just laid there in the grass and stared at the afternoon sky. After a few minutes, Inaki was able to stand up, but he wasn’t able to do much more.

“Great,” Yan said. “Time to continue.”

“I thought you said that this was too much for day one,” Inaki said.

“I said I was guessing. I didn’t think that you’d be the kind of person to get tired so easily.”

“I am sorry,” Inaki said.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Yan said. “Now come on, we’ve got more training to do.” Yan handed Inaki the vial of Urima herb solution, and smiled at him.

Inaki thought he was going to die.