– Bellamy –

"Please, no more! It's too much! I can't take it anymore!"

"It hurts! Why does it hurt!"

"HAVE YOU NO MERCY!"

There was nothing quite as pleasant as the sound of screams and the collective cries for mercy of your crew during training hours, for they were proof of progress, proof of the sweat and tears that would nourish their bodies and protect them in future fights. I quite enjoyed drawing those sounds out of them myself, but there were two issues with the current situation. For one, I wasn't the one doing it, Izou was. And two, I woke up to those sounds.

Just in case you may misunderstand, I didn't tend to sleep in. A captain's duties were without end and what time I had left was funnelled into training both myself and my crew. So, the fact that my crew was training while I wasn't awake was pretty unusual in and of itself. Compounded with the fact that my head was ringing like a set of church bells and the second issue became more apparent.

"Ah good, you're awake again, Bellamy-san." Izou's smiling face loomed into my field of vision, his eyes turned into a pair of semi-circles. "Up you get. Up you get."

"Ugh, my head…what the bloody hell happened?" I groaned, prompting a series of good-natured jeers from my crew.

"You passed out captain! Like a wuss!" "Did you skimp on leg day, captain?" "Captain, you're going to need more endurance! Think of your future wife!" "It's only a small pebble, captain. It's not that heavy!"

In that moment I was suddenly overcome by an intense feeling of IRRITATION.

In true anime style, my temporal blood vessels started bulging out and pulsating angrily as I levelled a glare at my crew. Despite having a blast teasing me about my short bout of unconsciousness, it didn't look like they were that far removed from having one of their own. Most of them were bent over and gasping for air, others were collapsed against convenient boulders on the side of the path up Mt. Argent and even Nero, who had made a name for himself amongst my crew for favoring inhumane training regimens, looked like he was about to croak.

Also, what did they mean: it was only a small pebble? The pebble as they called it, was a bloody miniature planet that I was dragging behind me! Up and down the mountain! Repeatedly! If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed that Izou had taken inspiration from the punishment of Sisyphus, doomed to push a giant boulder up a mountain forever. I would also like to point out that the rock attached to my waist via an anchor chain was only shaped like a planet because I had ground it down into a sphere by dragging an irregularly shaped monster up a gravel path again and again over the course of the last couple of days.

All of that, while Izou was taking potshots at me, exhausting me both physically and mentally. Izou had promised that driving myself to the brink was a surefire way to increase the chances of awakening my haki, but so far all I had managed was getting in a lot of practice using tekkai on a moment's notice, much to his own bewilderment. At least, the commander wasn't using his own haki and gave me enough of a warning before taking his shot. If he hadn't, I'd have been turned into Swiss cheese already, instead of my body being merely covered in black and blue bruises.

Having been subjected to this sort of treatment for days by this point, was it that incomprehensible that my brain decided to take a brief nap? Especially when encouraged by a bullet to the cranium? By comparison, my crew only had tiny, feather light sandbags bound to their torso and limbs. I distinctly remembered them crying for mercy about the weights as I was returning to consciousness, and theirs only weighed half a ton or so. Wussies. The whole lot of them.

Bang bang bang

"If you have the breath to talk, I'm clearly not pushing you guys hard enough!" Izou called out, firing a few warning shots to make my crew dance. Funny how an exhausted man suddenly found new reserves of stamina when a bullet whizzed past his legs. "Another ten laps on the double!"

"You sadist!"

"Fifteen for you, Lily!" Izou hollered after her, notably not denying the accusation.

"Fuck!"

"Make that twenty!"

After sending my crew on their way, Izou gave me a hand up, steadying me as I tried to regain my sense of balance. The lesson? If you could, try not to get shot in the head. You were likely to feel as if your five senses decided to have a party and get really drunk. And I could assure you, it was a very uncomfortable experience with pain far greater than the worst hangover.

"Did it have to be the head?" I asked, doing my best to suppress the pain via external pressure to the noggin. "Again?"

"You're the one who requested maximum intensity to get the greatest gain in the shortest amount of time. I merely obliged my current employer's request." Izou shrugged. "I'd also like to point out that I warned you."

"Like heck you did!" I retorted. "It might get a little rough does not constitute a proper warning for this!"

"Not sure what you're complaining about. You've all made astonishing amounts of progress, didn't you? Case in point, your mastery of tekkai is coming along nicely."

"It sure doesn't feel like it. You've been shooting at me for weeks now. If I'm getting better at it, why does it still hurt just as much as when we started? Actually, it's getting worse!"

"…greater self awareness?" Izou offered, not meeting my eyes. Wait a minute…this reminded me a lot of a different training regimen I had seen somewhere in my past life. Just back then, it had involved a series of buddha statues of increasing size and not bullets.

image [https://xfs-n15.xfsbb.com/comic/00005/images/fa/a6/faa607851be48c37f722467ae25d8049d05a44b3_166274_800_1328.jpg]

"…you increased the amount of gunpowder, didn't you?" My suspicions turned into certainty when Izou made a great show of inspecting my crew's progress. "Wow…did you honestly think I wasn't going to figure it out eventually?"

"…"

"…Izou…what are doing?"

"…this is for your own good." Huh? What did he mean?

"Hey, what are you doing! Stop! Stooop…." The bastard kicked my boulder down the mountain. "Izoouuuuuuuuuu!!!!!"

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– Muret –

"You don't have to do this." the man pleaded piteously.

"I do. Now shut up and give me your arm." With the ease coming from years of practice, Muret quickly and securely fastened a tourniquet around the arm. Soon after, the surface of the forearm was covered in a network of dilated veins, filled to the brim with blood.

"Like, don't we have animals for this sort of thing?"

"Are you suggesting I use Funkfreed as a lab-rat to test out my new and potentially highly dangerous concoctions? You monster!" How dare he! Retribution was swiftly applied via a strike to the cranium using a nearby clipboard.

"Well, not Funkfreed per say…maybe there's the local wildlife?"

"One, we're on a barren rock called Argent Isle. What local wildlife? And two, animals have rights."

"And I don't? Ouch!" Muret would give him one thing. The man had good veins, such good veins in fact, that it was almost a pleasant experience inserting a sharp instrument into his body. Definitely a far superior specimen when compared to some of her elderly patients back home.

"You're a pirate. Every marine will tell you that pirates don't have rights. It's in their charter and everything. You can ask Nero if you don't believe me."

"…seriously? That's your justification?" Another whack of the clipboard foiled an attempt to fiddle with the needle. What if he had pulled it out by accident?

"You also volunteered, remember Captain?"

"I volunteered because you said you were testing new medicines!" Bellamy protested, but didn't make any further effort to remove the iv-line.

"All medicines are potentially highly dangerous concoctions." Muret simply stated as she watched the fluid drip slowly into the veins. "It's just a matter of applying the wrong dosage."

"Absolutely wonderful." Bellamy groaned, "Hopefully I'll at least build up a tolerance to this stuff or something…"

"See, there's a bright side to everything!" Muret beamed at her captain. Hmmm, she really had expected some sort of response by now. Maybe she should up the dose a little?

A few minutes passed in silence, with Muret periodically checking Bellamy's vital signs and her captain seemingly lost in thought. But when the conversational pause was eventually broken, it was for a topic Muret had not been expecting.

"I hadn't expected Rivers to actually succeed in romancing Mani." Bellamy said, making her nod absentmindedly. When they had first met, Mani had made it clear that Rivers wasn't the sort of man she had been looking for. Now, they seemed inseparable.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Being kind can work wonders at times." Muret replied, jotting down a few notes. Bellamy had developed a faint sheen of sweat on his brow and that was worth recording. Perhaps it was a sign of an increased release of adrenalin? "Rivers' patience certainly paid off."

"It did. It sure did." Bellamy agreed. "But do tell me something, Muret."

"Yes, captain?"

"Will Eddy's patience pay off too?"

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– Eddy –

Eddy gently breathed in, his thorax and abdomen expanding, his diaphragm contracting, his entire posture relaxed. The warm evening air was guided past his closed lips, moisturised during the passage through his nasal tunnels and then down past his larynx.

"Regardless of what you're trying to achieve, all physical disciplines begin and end with the proper way to breathe. Supplying the right amount of oxygen to every cell in your body is paramount to extracting your full potential."

The newly arrived molecules diffused through his cavernous organ, filling his alveoli to the brim. The gates were closed, cutting off all avenues of escape and driving the newcomers towards and over the barrier into the rivers of blood, by which they were swept away to the farthest reaches of his internal world.

"Not only does this prevent your muscle fibers from contracting individually in an uncontrollable manner, with some practice it is even possible to bring them all into synch with one another. Perfect control in a sense."

The cellular factories sprang to life, as fuel and material was fed to the industrial machine, preparing them for the Great Shift. Messengers were sent everywhere, carrying with them a host of commands ensuring the coordination between different units, all awaiting the order to ignite the engines…restrained as of yet by central command.

"With control comes stability. With stability comes precision. With precision comes power."

Waste was spewed out into the nearby streams, the torrents carrying them back to Eddy's lung and its many caves. A sally breaking out of the external blockade, past a set of pearly white walls and into the wider world outside.

"And power is…speed!"

It started with his toes. It was a small movement, so tiny it nearly did not deserve the name, yet…yet it set off a chain reaction. From his toes to his feet, past his calves into and past his upper legs…a concentrated push with explosive results. The ground shattered around Eddy's feet just as his body shot forward, propelled by the reactive force of the world. If Bellamy had been around to see this, he would have started cackling about the second law of motion of some physicist unknown to this world. But he was not here and thus unable to witness Eddy rushing down the beach at speeds that would have put racing cars to shame.

Electricity travelled down Eddy's arms, one hand tightening its grip on his sheath the other clamping around his hilt. The blade screeched against the scabbard, as it was pressed into the track formed by the enclosing walls by the full force Eddy's arm could muster. One last stomp, his right foot acting like a pivot, his sword racing out of the scabbard like lightning towards an unprotected neck.

It was stopped cold by a black sheath.

"Well done. With a lot more work, you may have a chance of reaching mediocrity after all." Izou commented, delivering his verdict in a jovial tone. That this had been Eddy's best performance to date by a fair margin seemed not to matter to the commander. Or perhaps that made him all the more eager to savagely critique Eddy's efforts with a smile. "Your timing was off by half a second and you need to exhale more evenly. Your breath hitched just before you moved, which threw you off."

"Any…anything else?" Eddy panted, somewhat unsteadily placing his katana back in its sheath.

"Your wrist is too stiff and that prevents you from effectively bringing your strength into play when you draw your sword. That in turn only slows you down and that is especially detrimental in your case."

"B-because…pant…I o-only have one lung."

"Amongst other things. You just don't have the physique to absorb a lot of damage and neither do I for the matter. If you want an example of someone who does, I can point you towards Jozu. While it is possible to iron out this weakness to some degree, it is highly unlikely that this is ever going to be your strong suit." Izou explained. "On the other hand, Jozu really isn't that gifted in the speed department. You are and with your lung in the condition that it is, we agreed that your best bet was to maximize the one weapon you do have. There really isn't much need for a lot of stamina when you can finish your fight in a single strike."

"So, what about my wrist?"

"I'm getting to that. The quick draw technique I'm teaching you works by using your sheath as a guiding rail for your sword, allowing you to use a lot more force to draw your sword without worrying about losing control. The tricky bit is using the right amount of strength." Izou answered, taking the stance Eddy had been in earlier. "Too little force and the effect is negligible. Too much force and you risk increasing the friction so much that your sword may get stuck. But when your wrist is all tense like it was, finding that balance becomes awfully difficult, never mind maintaining it evenly throughout the whole process."

"…my wrist wasn't that stiff, was it? That's like swordsmanship 101."

"If you were learning any other style, you would be right. However, my family style requires much finer control. I admit it's a difficult task, but if you get it right…this becomes possible."

"Did you do someth…" Eddy began but before he could finish his sentence, a nearby tree turned into a pile of finely diced cubes. "…ah. You did do something."

"This really isn't that impressive when compared to what my grandfather could do. He was the master swordsman of the family, while I only learned the basics from him before I left. Now, do you think you're ready to try again?"

"Yeah, I got my breath back." Eddy nodded.

"Good, just remember, keep the wrist nice and suppl…"

"Hey, Eddy!" From one moment to the next, Izou vanished with nary a trace mid sentence, just as Muret came into view, jogging up towards Eddy. What was she doing all the way out here? Also, where had Izou disappeared off to? "Do you have a minute?"

"Sure. Always for you. What do you want? Actually, sorry that was aggressive wasn't it? I didn't mean it like that and I'm happy you came by, but I'm just curious as to why andyoulookbeautiful…" The flood of words was stopped by a dainty finger held against his lips.

"Eddy. Breathe." Muret's smile looked so pretty…and did she change her hairstyle?

"I was babbling, wasn't I?" How embarrassing.

"Nothing I can't handle. It's flattering in a way too." She liked it? Alright! Keep it going, Eddy-boy. Keep it smooth.

"So…uhm…how can I help?"

"I had something to tell you." For some reason, Muret seemed rather self-conscious, dare he even say nervous, as she said that. Why? Had something happened? But then, why had she not gone to the captain or Sarquiss? Again, where was Izou? "Also, stop thinking so much, Eddy. Focus!"

"Yes, ma'am." Eddy gave her a salute, even as Muret grabbed the front of his shirt as if she was about to shake him down.

"Remember how I promised to think about what you said? After you got hurt, I mean." She didn't shake him down but invaded deeper into his personal bubble. "I thought about it."

"Ah, you did?" Eddy managed to stammer out, a sense of nervousness taking over his entire being.

Then Muret was pulling him down and unbelievably soft lips were being pressed against his. The following kiss was short. It was also inexperienced, it was extremely awkward, but Eddy would swear to the end of his days that it was the best kiss of his life. For the first time in his life, Eddy truly felt as if he were in paradise.

"That's a yes, by the way." Muret whispered into his ear before taking his breath away once more. Eddy wasn't sure how long they stood there, with him just enjoying the feeling of holding Muret in his arms, of having her wrap her own around him. But it felt like an eternity that was too short. Still, it was nice being able to gaze into Muret's clear eyes without feeling as if he were desecrating something sacred.

"..."

"…"

"…so today is day one?" Eddy asked. That sounded a lot better before he said it. His tongue felt like it was made of lead, but Muret didn't laugh at him. Just a soft hand was gently placed against his cheek instead, as she gave him another soft kiss to the nose.

"Today is day one." She confirmed before changing the topic for him. "By the way Eddy, what were you working on?"

Oh yeah, that was something he could talk about without feeling awkward. Better yet, he could show off a bit too.

"Izou-san was teaching me a quick-draw technique called iaijutsu…"

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– Izou –

Well, would you look at that? He did manage to do it perfectly and on the very next try too.

"Why are you hiding, Izou-san?" Bellamy asked.

"Why are you purple, captain-san?" Izou shot back.

Truly, love was powerful.