Chapter 9: Chapter 9, You'll be fine.
Hayato's furious stride carried him straight into the dojo's interior training halls. "Akisame!" he barked out, the Philosopher of Jujitsu emerging with a start from one of the side rooms.
"Hayato? What's gotten into y-" Akisame began, only to be silenced by Hayato's upraised hand.
"Enough prattling," the elderly grandmaster growled, his face set in granite lines of displeasure. "Our young... disciple requires an accelerated training course. Immediately."
He punctuated the statement by clamping an iron grip on my shoulder, so forceful that I couldn't stop a small wince from escaping. Akisame's eyes widened fractionally before flickering over to study me with new apprehension.
"I see... And what form did you have in mind for this intervention?" he asked carefully. Despite his light tone, I could sense the subtle tension thrumming beneath his Query.
Hayato's jaw tightened infinitesimally. "One suited to properly... instill the gravity of overstepping certain boundaries," he bit out, sending a blistering glare my way.
Miu stepped forward then, determination brightening her features despite the high flush riding her cheeks. "Grandfather, please, Zack meant no disrespect!
We were simply..." She faltered for a moment before rallying fiercely. "It was merely an affectionate moment between us, nothing more!"
"Merely affection?" Hayato echoed with incredulous disdain. "On the very steps of our ancestral dojo's grounds?" His ki flared palpably, the air growing heavier and thrumming with his potent displeasure.
Akisame cleared his throat, somehow radiating calm despite the mounting tension. "Perhaps a compromise is in order? Something to impart the needed lesson without... excessive overreaction?"
For a long, fraught moment, Hayato simply stared at him, jaw clenched and eyes glittering with banked fury. Then, finally, he gave a terse nod.
"Very well. The kinetic propulsion gauntlet should suffice to drive the point home." His mouth curved in a thin, humorless slash of a smile as he added, "For now."
Hayato's unrelenting grip propelled me forward, deeper into the training halls with Akisame trailing behind - the philosopher's contemplative frown the only outward sign of his weighing the situation.
As we entered the larger practice room, my eyes immediately caught on the imposing form of what could only be the 'kinetic propulsion gauntlet.'
It was a hulking machine as large as a compact car, all whirring servos and glinting metal arms festooned with ominous looking projectile ports.
Akisame moved to the attached control terminal, punching in a complex series of inputs as the apparatus started to hum with building power.
"This training regimen is designed to push your defensive capabilities to the utmost limit," the jujitsu master explained, his usual wry humor noticeably subdued.
"You'll need to deflect, redirect or neutralize every single strike and projectile flung at you from multiple vectors - using nothing but your wits and martial skill."
One of the ceiling panels slid aside with a groan, a trio of heavy stone statues clad in different stone 'clothes' dropped into the corresponding launchers with alarming finality. The statues were of varying sizes, likely representing different body types for the kinetic projectiles.
Akisame's expression was profoundly grave as he met my gaze one final time.
"Fail to do so, and the consequences will be... substantially more than mere bruising. Brace yourself, disciple."
With that final, ominous pronouncement, the machine howled to life - metal arms blurring as the opening salvo rocketed straight for my chest.
Stunned for only a moment, I redirected the first statue launched at me by pivoting my stance and sweeping my arm out in a precise deflecting arc.
The weighted stone figure ricocheted off at an angle with a resonant thunk, the impact jarring my bones despite my defensive deflection.
There was no pause, no respite. More projectiles came screaming in immediately after, filling the air with deadly streaks of hurtling granite from every direction.
I moved on instinct, body blurring through intricate combinations of parries, deflections and evasive maneuvers as the barrage intensified.
Sweat beaded on my skin as I strained every fiber of my being, relying solely on finely-honed reflexes and technique to keep myself from being pummeled into oblivion.
At some point, I felt an unmistakable metallic groan reverberate up from the soles of my feet.
A quick glance revealed the floor itself rippling and distorting like liquid mercury, sections peeling back to disgorge even more projectile shafts aimed squarely at me.
Akisame's was launching these things at incredible velocity!
The deluge became so furious that I barely had a chance to process the next threat before it was upon me.
I moved in a blurred trance state, skin splitting from glancing impacts as I struggled to maintain the defensive rhythm.
Hours past but, just as I was ready for the next salvo, I heard the unmistakable sound of the machine powering down.
It seems Akisame knew when my battered form could no longer stand.
I fell to my knees,but through the haze, I made out Akisame's silhouette, his measured strides carrying him into the ruined practice room.
"Well done, disciple," he intoned solemnly, offering me a hand up from the shattered floor.
"You've endured the first flames of the crucible, and emerged somewhat hardened for it."
I gripped his proffered hand with a trembling one of my own, stone burns on my hands flaking off to reveal natural skin beneath, as ki from Akisame healed them.
Using his steady arms to pull myself upright - body screaming in protest from the accumulated battering.
Akisame watched me impassively as I swayed for a moment, fighting to steady my ragged breathing.
"Make no mistake," he continued, somehow making his mild baritone carry inexorable weight.
"What you've just experienced is but a fleeting glimpse of greater sufferings to come. The path you've chosen is one of endless, grueling tribulation."
His hand came up to grasp my shoulder firmly, giving it a light but meaningful squeeze.
"Prepare yourself, Zack Hammers. For you have not even reached the High-class disciple rank. Your mundane black belt means nothing here. Even granted by Sasaki himself."
I felt my eyelids growing heavy, the profound weariness from my ordeal crashing over me in waves.
Soon, I began to sway on my feet once more - the world tilting perilously as blessed oblivion beckoned...
I fell asleep standing.
*
The shrill blare of the air-horn in the hands of a certain pranking grand-master sliced through my slumber like a hot knife.
I jolted upright with a ragged gasp, only to immediately slump back against the mattress as the dregs of deep fatigue threatened to drag me under once more.
Then, a familiar tingle of revitalization began pulsing through my battered body.
[You have slept in a bed, HP, SP, and all status effects have been reset to 100%]
I watched in vague amazement as the mottled bruises and furious welts mottling my skin steadily faded and dispersed.
Torn muscles knit back together with strange alacrity, fractured bones remolding into their proper alignments as if guided by some unseen magnetic force.
Within moments, I felt refreshed and utterly renewed - the screaming aches and lingering pains from the jujitsu master's relentless onslaught simply sloughing away like a bad dream.
A low whistle slipped past my lips as I flexed and rotated formerly abused limbs, relishing in their seamless response and total absence of residual stiffness.
The profound weariness rapidly burned off, replaced by a surging vitality that left me feeling battle-ready and primed.
"Not a bad parlor trick you've got there, brat," Kensei wheezed out through his nasal chuckle.
I turned to fully regard the eccentric kenpo master, his sunglasses-clad gaze studying me with undisguised interest and calculation.
Despite his irreverent front, I could sense the weighing stillness behind that appraising stare.
"I'd call it more of a... cosmically-gifted quirk?" I replied with a question instead of an answer, a wry half-grin, pushing myself fully upright to face him.
"Definitely comes in handy for keeping up with your charming morning routines, master." i said, somehow remaining cool.
Kensei let out a snort that could've peeled paint off the walls. "Better get used to exploiting every advantage at your disposal then, kid. The training regimens from here on out won't be getting any easier."
As if to punctuate his ominous statement, Shigure's clipped voice echoed towards us from the direction of the dining hall.
"Hurry up, or you'll miss breakfast."
I shook my head bemusedly at the weapons mistress's trademark stoicism.
Apparently, even something as mundane as a morning meal summons warranted that same, all-business inflection from the taciturn master.
Brushing aside the lingering vestiges of fatigue, I quickly made my way after the swaggering Kensei. Despite his cavalier persona, that undercurrent of solemn promise rang with the weight of truth.
Yesterday's torturous endurance gauntlet was clearly just a precursor, to infinitely more strenuous hell lying that lies ahead.
My steps quickened unconsciously as that frisson of eager determination flared back to life. Very well then, I mused, tightening my jaw as I traversed the imposing halls of Ryozanpaku.
I grinned happily for an unknown reason.
Bring.
It.
On.
I arrived at the table to see almost all of the food gone, Shigure shoveling more into her face at a blinding speed while the other masters did the same.
It wasn't all business after all. It was absolutely serious.
Then, for another five days, things passed peacefully. If you call being repeatedly dumped on by Akisame in the form of training 'peace'.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone