LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Training
January 26, 2013, Saturday, 9:00 am JST, Nakameguro, Tokyo
A few days after the incident, as the sun rose higher over Nakameguro, casting a golden hue across the street market, Elric went to the street market once more. He had a bucket list of groceries and items for his new apartment. The vibrant colors of the produce stalls caught his eye, and the aroma of fresh bread wafted through the air. As he wandered through the bustling crowd, he made a mental note to pick up some ripe tomatoes and fragrant herbs for his first meal in the new place.
As Elric navigated the crowded stalls, he was taken off guard when a familiar figure appeared before him. Turning around, the teenage girl Miruko Horigawa stood there. Her demeanor contrasted with the troubled girl he had saved from the cursed object. Released from the hospital today, she smiled warmly, and her eyes sparkled with curiosity.
But now, she greeted him with a kind smile and an air of curiosity. "Hey, it's you! I never thought I'd see you again!"
Elric could hardly process the contrast between the girl he had rescued and the one now standing before him, curious and kind.
With a gentle bow, Miruko spoke to her savior, "Thank you for helping me. Things feel different now."
As Elric chuckled slightly at her response, the other two teenagers followed awkwardly. When Miruko turned to them, her smile faded into a sharp glare.
"I told you to stop following me," she snapped, crossing her arms. "We are not my friends."
The taller twin suddenly dropped to his knees, clutching at the hem of Miruko's skirt with tears streaming down his face, "Miruko, please! Don't do this! We didn't mean any harm, I swear! It is not like that!" he wailed, his voice cracking with desperation.
The other twin, still standing, looked visibly embarrassed but composed himself enough to face Elric.
"It's… it's not what it looks like," the other twin stammered, scratching his head. We were just worried about her after everything that happened during that incident and a series of power outages at the hospital. We are... or were truly friends."
"By the way, my name is Hiroki. Muto Hiroki, but you can call me Ichiro if you want," the older twin introduced himself. "The one begging Miruko is my younger twin, Muto Ichiro."
Elric pondered why the teenagers looked similar; they were twins. The older one looked childish, while the younger one looked responsible. Elric giggled while maintaining his composure, seeing what transpired between Miruko and the twins.
Suddenly, he thought of something weird that the younger Muto said, "Power outages at the hospital?"
Elric asked Ichiro about the power outage at the Tokyo Kyousai Hospital.
Ichiro answered, "After Miroku was admitted, the hospital was experiencing electric fluctuations. Heart monitors, lights, pagers, smartphones, anything electrical pulsated with erratic fluctuations."
Ichiro concluded that the electrical disturbances continued until Miruko regained consciousness. Elric pondered the new disturbance for a while until Miruko interrupted him.
"Anyway, I was wondering if you could take me as your disciple because I was admired by your strength and kindness," Miruko said after escaping from Ichiro's wailing. The other twins also asked the same question, leading to Miruko arguing with them again.
While Miruko was arguing, Elric asked her for her age. She replied that she was fourteen. Elric turned to the twins. His focus asked the twins the same question: fifteen. He searched for an excuse to avoid taking them on as disciples. However, he ultimately succumbed to the determined gazes of the young ones.
To prevent the teenagers from arguing, Elric persuaded Miruko to accept the twins as friends again. Miruko had little choice but to rekindle her friendship with the twins.
Elric asked for their schedule. They all said they had nothing on their schedule, noting that it would snow tomorrow. He suddenly had a thought.
"Miruko, boys... I will take you all as my students," Elric affirmed, "All of you will meet me on top of my apartment building at 0700 hours."
The youngsters complained that it would be snowing and cold tomorrow. However, Elric ignored their complaints and asserted that the training would start tomorrow morning. If they evaded the training schedule, he would kick them out.
The youngsters have no choice but to accept the deal. As the young teenagers left the scene, Elric continued shopping and returned to the apartment building to speak with the landlord.
Due to his computer expertise, the landlord accepted Elric's offer to use the top outside floor for training purposes. This fixed the landlord's computer problem, and Elric continued working on his software projects and gaming activities the rest of the time.
January 27, 2013, Sunday, 6:30 am
The ground on top of the apartment building was covered in snow and ice. Unfazed by the cold, Elric prepared the training ground for his new students' arrival.
"I just wanted a quiet life, but here I am, teaching kids how to fight. This is not what I signed up for," Elric thought reluctantly.
The harsh environment of the training ground would serve as a deterrent, eventually forcing his new students to quit on him. However, he was interested in the mysterious occurrences around Miruko.
"Okay, then," Elric says, talking to himself. I guess I can do some shadowboxing while I am waiting for the runts. Let's see how rusty I am."
While he waited, he started to do shadowboxing, assuming a fighting position.
"It is been a while, big guy..." Elric talked to himself.
Miruko and the Muto twins arrived at the foot of the building. They talked to the landlord for directions to the training session. The landlord pointed upward to the ceiling, indicating the top floor.
Miruko, Ichiro, and Hiroki looked at each other and sighed in dismay, "It had to be outside..."
As they climbed the stairs, the teenage girl conversed with the twins. She wanted to apologize for her inappropriate behavior yesterday, which involved arguing that they were not friends. The twins, especially Ichiro, teared up a bit at her forgiveness.
As they continued to climb the stairs, they heard a rumbling tremor, as if they were in the epicenter of an earthquake. The whole building shook, but the surrounding infrastructure remained intact. The youngsters rushed up the stairs, reaching the top floor. They were appalled by the sight of their teacher, whose face was covered in dripping blood and a cracked crater on the ground.
Ichiro and Hiroki cried out, "Sensei! What happened?"
Miruko was worried by the sight of the training ground as if Elric was fighting a monster or something.
"Everyone shut it!" Elric replied with a short breath, "I am in the middle of training."
Ichiro and Hiroki needed clarification. However, Miruko's expression changed as she perceived something different.
"Guys, look closely at what's in front of him," Miruko said with a determined gaze, "Sensei is fighting someone."
The twins, even more confused, looked closely at the fight. Their confused demeanor changed to a surprised moment. A ghostly aura began to take form in front of Elric.
"Is that... a boxer?" Hiroki attempted to understand the situation.
"Look at the size of that beast!" Ichiro gasped, surprised. "He is like 8 feet tall!"
Miruko recognized the ghostly persona, "That is Nikolov Tymon."
The twins were perplexed by the information, "Who?"
Miruko further explained, "I saw him on the YouTube News. Nikolov Tymon was an African-Russian Boxer, a heavyweight champion with a terrifying record. They said he was a monster in the ring, not just because of his size, but because of what he became."
Ichiro tilted his head, unsure, "What do you mean, 'what he became'?"
Miruko hesitated, her voice quieter now, "He went through experimental drug treatments and height enhancements. It made him stronger, faster... but also uncontrollably violent. He attacked three SWAT teams when they tried to arrest him. Forty percent of them ended up hospitalized for months of physical therapies after the fight."
Ichiro and Hiroki dropped jaws, "That thing standing there... is that supposed to be him?"
Miruko nodded grimly, gripping her arm tightly. "I don't know why or how, but that's him. There's no mistaking it. The last time I heard of him, Nikolov Tymon was... executed."
Shifting to the battle, Elric, heavily breathing, adjusted himself. He was fighting in boxing against an imaginary entity from his own mind. Elric actualized his imaginary opponent into existence. He could fight an imaginary Nikolov Tymon because he was on the same SWAT team that was sent to restrain the out-of-control boxer. Elric was fifteen years old then, and his father forced him to join SWAT as part of his training.
The fight continued, with imaginary Nikolov throwing left and right hooks, uppercuts, and near-death strikes. Boxer-mode Elric performed different counters and strikes. Nonetheless, the damage to the imagination was very little.
Just when Elric took a head-on punch to the chest, he was sent flying to the wall behind the youngsters, leaving a crater. The teenagers were perplexed and horrified by seeing an imaginary opponent attacking in reality.
Elric regained his composure by getting out of the crater and spitting blood from his mouth. He chuckled as if reminiscing about fighting the real Nikolov in his youth.
The bold fighter was ready to put the imaginary opponent down. Elric changed his boxing to kung fu. He threw relentless strikes against Nikolov's pressure points and sweeps to disbalance them, causing the black titan to reel in from the strikes. As Nikolov was cornered at the edge of the building, Elric's finishing move was a midair kick to the Adam's apple of the throat, causing the imagination to fall off the building, dissipating to nothing. The damage to the environment disappeared as well.
Miruko and the twins were astonished by the sight of the fighting conclusion. Elric thought that the teenagers would ask if they wanted to quit. However, the teenagers were excited and wanted to start the training.
All three asked, "How can you move barefoot on the icy floor? It looked like he was boxing, then some martial arts..."
The bombardment of questions rattled Elric a bit since he never had this sort of encounter. This basically backfired his plan for an everyday, quiet life, and he had no choice but to accept the outcome of a failed strategy.
When he was about to ask Miruko, the landlord burst out of the stairwell and asked, "Is everyone all right!? There was an earthquake!"
Elric suddenly realized that his shadowboxing caused an earthquake-like presence, scaring the landlord and possibly the other residents. Due to the debacle, he had to clear up the misunderstanding and reschedule the training for tomorrow. His new, everyday, quiet life had just changed to a new life of abnormality.
Five days later...
Miruko, Ichiro, and Hiroki were doing their first training regimen early in the morning. The twins were screaming their lungs out from the pain of "The Military Push-Up Test" and the freezing temperatures. Elric was using this "test" to gauge their limit and strengths.
"Come on, BOYS! Isn't this what you wanted!?" Elric yelled at his students with a military drill instructor tone. "Five for each form: Normal, Clap, Diamond, Wide, Archer Left, Archer Right, Normal, Sphinx, and Hinge. All are in the exact order. Miss one or go off track; you try again!"
"yes, sir..." both Ichiro and Hiroki lightly affirmed.
Elric yelled, "I cannot HEAR YOU!"
"SIR, YES, SIR!" both Ichiro and Hiroki yelled.
The exercise was intense. Ichiro was clumsy but determined, while Hiroki was methodical but lacked stamina. However, Miruko did not reply as she was focused on the Archer Right section. Elric raised his eyebrow, noticing that she was continuing despite her first time doing the push-up test. On the other hand, the twins were still stuck on the diamond section.
"What the...!" Ichiro exclaimed, astounded by Miruko's newfound strength.
"Come on, boys! Even a skinny girl is better than you! Go Faster!" Elric yelled at the twins.
As the twins collapsed from exhaustion at the Wide section, Elric ordered everyone to take a break. However, Miruko stopped at the Sphinx section of the test.
Elric asked Miruko if she was alright.
The teenage lady answered, "I am alright. Never felt better."
Hiroki asked, "How could you do that many push-ups? I remember that you could barely do twenty normal push-ups. This 'Military Push-Up Test' is way overkill for your standard."
Miruko, perplexed by the feat, realized that something was different about her. She could not easily do that many push-ups, especially the advanced ones.
However, Elric had the answers to her question. He approached his workout bag, which he had bought from the street market, and took out a small lightbulb.
Elric approached Miruko and asked, "Have you ever noticed the layer of snow around you? Nothing, not even a spec of snowflake, was found. A perfect circle formed around you while focusing on the test."
Miruko, perplexed by this revelation, was suddenly handed a lightbulb onto her hand. Suddenly, the lightbulb began to shine despite not connecting to a power source.
The twins exclaimed, "What the What!?"
Miruko started at the lightbulb in her hand, its glow flickering in rhythm with her racing heartbeat.
"What... what is this?" Miruko whispered, her voice trembling.
Elric explained that Miruko could produce an electric field, which caused the layer of snow to evaporate around her and the lightbulb to shine upon contact. The Muto twins dropped their jaws, yet Elric was unfazed by her abilities. How did her abilities manifest? What would happen next?