Two days after entering the training room in Reito’s estate Jonathan is finally starting to make some progress on his training
The chamber’s air felt heavier now.
Not physically — nothing about the atmosphere had changed — but Jonathan perceived it differently. Two days ago the room had seemed massive, empty, almost mocking in its openness. Now it feels smaller.
Contained.
Like the space itself was waiting for him to make a mistake.
He stood at the center of the inertial floor, the matte-black suit fused seamlessly along his body. The luminous tracings no longer fluttered unpredictably; they pulsed in long, controlled intervals, mapping the quiet rhythm of muscle engagement beneath his skin.
For four minutes and eleven seconds, he had not taken a step.
That alone bordered on absurdity.
Two days earlier, he couldn’t last twenty.
Hiruzen(Whispering): Wow. He’s really made a lot of progress in just two days
Emma(Whispering): Yeah it’s crazy. Before he couldn’t even move without making a mistake
Reito: Quite you two he’s almost got it
Jonathan: Focus Jonathan. Focus
A near-invisible tremor rippled through his left calf.
The suit warmed instantly.
Not hot — never hot — but dense, like heat trapped inside iron rather than flame brushing against it.
The nearest ring beneath his foot brightened.
Charge increasing
Jonathan didn’t smile this time. Early excitement had cost him too many resets already. Emotion caused tension. Tension caused inefficiency.
Instead, he let the sensation pass through him.
Observe. Don’t interfere.
That was the rule he was beginning to understand.
Jonathan: Remember build charge with every tiny movement even blinking
His heartbeat slowed.
He could feel it now — not just the pulse in his throat, but the mechanical push of blood leaving the ventricles. Each contraction nudged his center of mass by microscopic degrees.
Before this training, that movement had been meaningless noise.
Now?
Each beat deposited a dust-grain of power into him.
Time stretched.
Six minutes.
Seven.
The energy inside him felt different today — not larger yet, but denser. Before, stored kinetic charge felt like wind pressing against his insides, eager to burst outward.
Now it felt compressed.
Layered.
As if each micro-harvest stacked perfectly atop the last with almost zero leakage.
He tested it carefully.
Very carefully.
Jonathan inhaled for four seconds.
Held it.
During the hold, he performed the smallest posterior chain engagement imaginable — a subtle activation along the spinal erectors.
No visible movement.
The suit responded with a deep, steady warmth running up his back.
Three rings illuminated at once.
His eyes sharpened.
Eight minutes.
His breathing grew thinner.
More refined.
Instead of drawing air downward with effort, he let the diaphragm descend only as far as necessary.
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Minimal displacement.
Maximum pressure efficiency.
Each inhale became a quiet kinetic deposit.
Each exhale stabilized the structure.
He wasn’t breathing to survive anymore.
He was breathing to charge.
Then he decided to test the threshold.
Slowly, he shifted his weight forward exactly one centimeter.
Paused.
Stored the elastic tension across his Achilles.
Held it there.
The suit trembled with contained feedback.
The floor brightened but did not tilt.
Good.
Very good.
He released the step.
Not explosively — surgically.
His foot touched down.
The result was immediate.
A fracture split the metal beneath him with a sharp tick, spiderwebbing outward in a perfectly controlled radius barely wider than his shoulders.
No shockwave.
No wasted vector.
No stumble.
Jonathan stared at the crack.
His pulse spiked — he forced it back down.
Reito: Jonathan! That’s enough for today
Reito tapped the side of the wall and the floor deactivated and the room returned to a white void. Jonathan dropped to the ground covered in sweat
Jonathan: Oh man. That was tough but still it’s getting easier everytime I try
Reito: That’s good. It means you’re making progress. How are you feeling?
Jonathan: Tired. But now even though it’s not much I’m steadily building charge from even the smallest of movement
Emma and Hiruzen walk over and help him up
Hiruzen: You’re doing good man once we get done with this training you’re going to whole different person
Emma: Yeah look at what you accomplished in only two days. Imagine how strong you’ll be in two months
Reito: All right you three it’s time to switch. Hiruzen you’re up next
Reito walks over to the far side of the room and opens a box and pulls out Hiruzen’s training suit.
Reito: Here Catch!
Hiruzen caught his suit and began to examine it. It was a light grey skintight bodysuit with shimmering glowing lines all over it
Hiruzen: Whoa!
Reito: Hiruzen as of right now you are really solid. You have great control over your ice and can produce massive amounts in a short amount of time. Not only that but you are able to almost instantly drop the temperature of your surrounding area to below zero so your control over temperature is good too.
Hiruzen: So what exactly do I need to improve?
Reito: You escalate things way too quickly, especially when you get emotional
Hiruzen: Huh?
Reito: When you developed Zero core during your time in the training sim that was you taking your first step into making Iskarth’s power your own but you use it too much Like with Skadi. With her It was understandable but then you used stage two just to win and you suffered major injuries.
Hiruzen: Well I just did all that training beforehand and I didn’t want to lose in my first match. But did you see how strong she was
Reito: And what about what happened with Randall. His death caused you to strike a deal with Iskarth
Hiruzen: That was different. We all jumped Nulthira and we were barley making a dent. Randall sacrificed his life and it amounted to nothing. What was I supposed to do?
Reito: I understand completely. You were desperate and emotionally unstable but jumping to Iskarth’s power everytime you get some push back won’t cut it on the five islands. But that’s not your only flaw
Hiruzen: Great what else
Reito: Your output to proficiency ratio
Hiruzen: I thought you said my output was good
Reito: It is. You produce overwhelming amounts of ice but not always intelligently. You create massive surges of ice and freeze large environments but you burn through energy fast and you’ll eventually tire yourself out giving the opponent a chance to strike.
Hiruzen: …
Reito: This week we’ll focus on increasing your efficiency with your ice and later on we’ll work on you controlling more of Iskarth’s power
Hiruzen: Got it. So how do I do that
Reito: That suit you have is a cryokinetic adaptive training suit designed to protect the user from lethal temperature extremes while refining control. We designed it from graphene-reinforced elastic fabric, it rapidly redistributes heat to prevent frostbite and muscle damage, while a microfluid cooling network stabilizes body temperature during intense output. Strategically placed phase-change nodes absorb massive amounts of thermal energy before the body reaches critical danger, and embedded biosensors monitor nerve and muscle function, issuing tactile warnings if limits are approached.
Hiruzen: Wow that’s a lot
Reito: Yup now put it on and i’ll start up the sim
Hiruzen puts on his suit and it automatically adjusts and tightens to his body.
Reito tapped his foot on the ground and a low mechanical hum rolled through the space, so deep it was felt more in the ribs than heard in the ears.
A thin line appeared across the floor.
Not drawn — revealed.
It traced a perfect square around him before branching outward into a geometric lattice spreading across every surface.
The white began to retract.
Panels slid apart with surgical precision, folding into one another like tectonic plates moving in controlled slow motion. Beneath them emerged a darker skeleton — matte graphite metal threaded with subtle reinforcement ribs.
The empty white room vanished once again
Now the room had weight.
Now it had intent.
A pulse of amber light traveled once around the perimeter.
CLIMATE INITIALIZATION.
The temperature shifted almost immediately — not dramatically, just enough for the skin to notice. That eerie, sterile neutrality gave way to something alive.
Jonathan: Oh man what is happening
Emma: The air is drying up
Hiruzen: It’s the humidity it dropping really fast
Vents they hadn’t seen opened in silence.
The air thinned.
Dried.
Humidity dropped so fast Their lips almost felt it before Their brains could even register why.
12% atmospheric moisture.
Desert conditions.
A section of the far wall irised open, revealing circular emitters embedded like dormant eyes.
They activated one by one and heat spilled into the chamber in invisible waves
Reito: All right kid time to start
End Chapter
