Progress Report
Logan, after saying good night to Amar, stayed up of course. He played a bit longer with Remy, before the Rizzel was also ready for sleep. Then, Logan was alone out in the training yard for the Frear Squadron.
His last conversation had filled him with new determination. It was time to swap up his training plan. It had served so far to bring Logan up to a par with his peers, but now it was time to be confident in more than his endurance. His last fight had shown him his current shortcomings.
Whipping his tentacles into motion to summon the Soul Sword, Logan cleared his mind. Logan had access to two amazing fragments of Divinity, but working them in tandem felt nearly impossible. But he had done it last fight, and Logan suspected he would have to be able to do it consistently to survive.
Since Logan had killed that Salt King, teleporting had become slightly more manageable for Logan’s body. Before, jumping around had always left his stomach incredibly nauseous, but now Logan had progressed to just feeling slightly queasy and disorientated. However, those were things he could work around with experience.
So Logan spent that night getting said experience, summoning his Soul Sword and practicing teleporting between the motions of the basic kata they had been taught. As he began, Logan found himself thankful the Soul Sword passed harmlessly through its user, as Logan might have lost an arm or two otherwise.
However, as the night progressed, so did Logan, and as the sun was set to rise and Logan called it quits, you could hardly tell he felt like a shaken soda as he popped around the training field. A passing stranger might even call him graceful. Maybe.
As Logan toweled off the worst of the sweat and stepped into the magic shower once again, he found himself excited for the day. It felt like he was really starting to build into a routine here at Marineford. While he was thinking about it, he should probably get into the habit of getting to know the rest of the Squad members.
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The Frear Squadron’s training for the day included the normal amounts of weightlifting, cardio, and combat instruction. Which, if you were to speak in metaphor, was a high enough dosage for a lethal injection.
Logan was dead tired with the rest of the Squadron, but there was one person who had managed to make it through barely winded. Lexie stood, panting slightly, but clearly nowhere near as exerted as the rest of the Squad. That, beyond her literally standing, was what made Lexie stand out.
As part of his earlier thinking, Logan decided to ask her about it this time.
“Hey Lexie, if you don’t mind me asking, that’s some pretty impressive endurance you got there. What did you do to get it?”
She looked at Logan with cold eyes.
“By doing similar exercises to these for many, many years.”
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Something about her response made Logan feel like Lexie didn’t want to talk about it, but Logan still wanted to make conversation with her. Searching for another topic, Logan eventually stumbled on something.
“I like your hair.”
Alright, it may not have been the best topic, but it got Lexie to lighten her guard. Clearly not expecting the compliment, the woman froze for a second before gently saying, “Thank you.”
Again something about her response made Logan think he shouldn’t continue too far down that path without getting to know her better first. Logan decided to flip around his first line of questioning.
“Can you show me some more exercises that will help me catch up? I want to be able to handle the hardest fights better.”
Lexie once again looked at Logan, although this time her gaze wasn’t as callous. With something akin to a mental shrug, Lexie nodded at Logan.
“Come, let me show you some of the routines I would use.”
Then, for the next several hours, Lexie walked Logan though multiple rotations of exercises. This lasted well after the sun had set, with very little talking between them. Logan had realized she preferred the silence, and the exercise had put Logan into a flow state, content to just move his body.
When Lexie finally finished, it had been an hour since dusk ended, with night well underway. Logan walked her back to her barracks, then exchanged goodnights. He walked away as she remained outside for just a second longer, before absconding.
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Amar had felt better since crying again with Logan. So many of her fondest memories centered around Jeremiah, and having built up that day so much in her head, to have her hopes dashed at the end had almost paralyzed her.
But she had still kept moving, keeping to the path she had wanted to set out upon, and now, for the first time, it felt like Amar had caught her breath. The routine of the Legion had helped her with that, as well had its pace. There was no time to be moping around, and she had managed to keep up.
Still, Amar hadn’t realized that she had been bottling up those emotions since Jeremiah’s death. She had wanted to talk to Logan a bit more about the man since he had actually known him, but maybe she had been reaching out subconsciously.
Regardless, it was as if a weight had been lifted, and Amar could finally look up again. She still missed the old man, and wished things had been different, but they weren’t. And maybe, that would be okay too.
As she went to bed that night, Amar was thankful for Gregor, as his advice had led her to this relief. She hadn’t seen the mayor’s son in weeks, but hoped he was doing alright. She had heard rumors that the Major himself had taken the young prodigy under his wing, so from the sound of things Gregor was doing just fine.
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Gregor could be doing better recently. After his first attempts at his new idea had failed Gregor had gotten stumped in his training. No matter what he tried, it felt like he was just a bit off, and so Gregor returned to his original experiment.
As Gregor readied himself to use the Aura Ability again, he thought that he might know the reason he was in a rut. Beyond the Major, Gregor had only spoken to a handful of people in the past couple of days, and usually no more than just some passing words. Although he was doing what he wanted to be doing, in complete comfort, Gregor realized that he needed a little more than that in his life.
Stopping halfway through his attempt, Gregor instead opened his eyes, and sheathed his sword. He made his way out of the training field, and walked on a path to the main thoroughfare. It was almost the end of the day, and most Squadrons were out training with their Captains. Hopefully, Gregor could find where Amar and Logan were.
Mostly though, Gregor wanted to talk to Amar. He wanted to see how she was doing, as the last time he had seen her, Amar had been devastated by the passing of Old Jeremiah. She hadn’t reached out to him, but he hoped she had taken his advice and confided in Logan. Amar didn’t deserve to grieve alone.
After searching through about half of the camp, he came upon their Squads corner. It turned out, Amar and Logan had been assigned to the same Squadron, under who Gregor assumed was Captain Frear, who the Major referred to affectionately as ‘Reena’. When Gregor arrived and started watching training, the Captain gave him a glare, but otherwise didn’t bother him.
It was almost an hour more before the Squadron finished its training, but Gregor didn’t mind the wait. Instead, he enjoyed the nice breeze drifting through the air as he leaned up against one of the barracks. It felt good to switch up his routine a bit.
Then, Captain Frear called an end to the training, and Gregor got up to say hello to his friends. Walking over, he flashed a big smile. Maybe it just felt good to see people he liked.