Death. Oh how I wish for death. Death would be so great. So awesome. So wonderful oh how-

  “Mutai.” Vincent called out to me. The voice sounded as if it’d been pulled from the depths of the underworld.

  “Y..ea..h?” My own voice struggled, destroyed as it was. It may actually be injured. Strange, I don’t remember screaming…

  “This is hard.”

  That was all he said but I nodded back, my entire emotional capacity put into that nod. It spoke volumes that even Vincent’s eternal rage, pain, and hatred had been extinguished for a moment out of pure exhaustion. I’d at least experienced this maybe twice before. Once in the sewers as I was on the verge of death from sickness and once from when I’d spent weeks punching that stupid bag till my body gave out over and over.

  These weighted clothes were not a joke. They were so monstrously effective that my eyes had shaken like a leaf in a storm when I’d tried running.

  My speed was less than someone with a power level of [5] going all out. Vincent was the same.

  It was the same in every other area. Our strength hadn’t changed but our muscles were already so tired by everything else. I’d run out of sweat and I think my body had started sweating blood at one point. My mind had gone strange and I remembered puking somewhere. Someone had said words at me but I couldn’t remember. Dehydration threatened to straight up kill me and the exhaustion was more than anything I’d ever felt. A weaker Mutai would’ve passed out already. I envied that Mutai so much.

  For Vincent to admit this was hard… that was the true wake up call that what we were doing was insane.

  We weren’t allowed to remove the clothes. No matter what. Not even when we showered. Only at the end of the day, were we finally allowed to strip them off and get into our healing tanks. We hadn’t even made it to the second week yet. At this rate, we may literally die before we do. It was a real fear.

  “We… need… to go to the showers.” Vincent spoke, struggling to move towards them. The thigh machine had been the st one, so I doubted our chances.

  “Sorry… Vincent. I don’t think… I can make it.”

  I wasn’t being dramatic. Our bodies were taking damage like this. One of the bones in my legs had fractured. Maybe both of them. I’d seen Vincent nearly crush himself to death with weight the other day when two of his fingers had broken. I had no idea how I was going to do the stairmaster today…

  Real tears sprung up. Tears of pain and despair.

  Vincent grabbed my shirt, a bit of anger returning to his face and eyes.

  “You… are not… giving up.”

  I stared into those red eyes and felt a small stir of my soul spit out a bit more motivation. Giving up, to Vincent? That wasn’t allowed.

  “Fuck off.” I said, spping his hand away. “I’ll beat you there.”

  I did, if only barely. The water smming into us released steam. The water was cold but it was like pouring water onto a stove when it hit our bodies. It would make the next exercises worse, as the clothes became even heavier, but it was that or dying. I’d have preferred dying but Master made sure we stayed just alive enough to continue working out. That torturer…

  We id there together. It wasn’t the first time. We had to take whatever break we could get when we could get it and ying down in a filthy gym shower was heaven compared to the sewers. The relief was pure ambrosia pouring into my veins. I opened my mouth, letting the water fall into my mouth.

  “Mutai.” Vincent said, his voice slightly less weak.

  “What?”

  “Why… how do you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “This training. It’s… I’ve trained before. I come from a long line of warriors and metalworkers. This… this is…”

  “Vega has to die.”

  They were simple words but they were true. What else was there to say? Vega had to die. I gnced at Vincent and saw some of his heat return. Some more of that ferocity, that anger, that hatred. He was going to surpass me, I realized in that moment. That anger, I didn’t have it anymore. I still had plenty of anger but it was nothing compared to the inferno within Vincent. I had to push harder to beat him. I had to. I had to-

  “No. That. That right there! How do you do it?” Vincent’s words seemed to be getting faster. “You aren’t like me. You’re so, calm. Yet you’re always ahead of me. How do you do it?!”

  I frowned. I wasn’t stupid, I got what he meant. I just…

  “My vilge-” I choked up, the moment hitting me with a surge of emotions. I hadn’t expected that. The moment was just too… charged. I tried again.

  “My life… it was peaceful. We lived out on an isnd away from work or money or anything like that. We fished. We hunted a little. We swam and we pyed. Everyone took care of each other. We had festivals, we had hobbies, my mother even liked to carve. She made beautiful little totems. My father was a woodworker, he made houses. He made our house. Towa had a vegetable garden and Maui always liked to py around and… and…” My eyes felt wetter than normal. “It was, it was wonderful.” I remembered those peaceful times. That great life that had been stolen from me.

  “It sounds like it was.” Vincent said in a quiet voice.

  We were both silent for a time, letting the water fall.

  “I was always weak you know. Always. But I didn’t care. They hid it from me. The whole vilge, my parents, my friends, everyone. My whole life, they knew, but I didn’t. Not how weak at least. I was power level [1] since the day I was born. The same day I realized… Vega came. He… I remember. I… saw my mother die. A beam through the heart. I saw her soul leave, the life depart her body. I saw the life leave her eyes. I didn’t realize what was happening then. The beams, they rained down. They took so many so fast.”

  I can still remember the screams. The cries. The fear and panic in so many voices. Vega’s name shouted. Pleas for mercy, pleas for their children, for their lives. So much fear and screaming.

  “I was hit hard. I didn’t understand. My father, he rammed into me, breaking my bones, running with all his strength out of the vilge. There was a bst of ki and… and they were gone. All of them. The whole Vilge. It was just a crater. A crater. It was so silent. So deathly silent. The bst hit me so hard and when I came to, I realized it. With horrifying crity, I realized it all. Then Vega came down. He smirked. He smiled and he ughed at what he had done. I asked him why. Why did he do it, why did he hurt them, why did he kill everyone. Why? Why did he… All he said was that I was lucky. He was surprised I was alive. He raised a hand to kill me and-”

  My voice choked up as the water fell and fell. A lot fell around my eyes.

  “My father stood up. He told Vega that he would not kill me. Vega… agreed. My father… his head… he… blood… so much blood. It…”

  It took me a long, long while to finish the story.

  “I punched him. He called me an infant. He knocked me out. The next time I woke up, everything was gone and the Smile company had me on a boat. That was over three years ago.”

  My breathing felt rougher than when I’d entered the showers.

  “I don’t know why I’m ahead Vincent. I think… you’re going to surpass me. I think I realize that now. You’re so much, stronger than me. In your soul. I don’t have that anger or drive anymore. I wasted away. I became a homeless nothing. I drank and drank and drank and drank. Some gangsters they… they nearly killed me while I was drowning myself in alcohol. I was stuck at Power Level [1] my whole life and they were… they tore me apart. Master saved me. I broke through my wall, I fought, I cwed my way up from the sewers but I just don’t have your drive. I don’t know why I just… I hate him. I hate him more than anything else in the world. But my anger isn’t the same as yours. It’s too… old. Burnt out. But still…”

  I got up, taking a deep breath.

  “But still?” Vincent said, eyes peering into me.

  “I can’t just give up. Master saved me and although it’s not what my family would have wanted… I want to kill him. Even if you surpass me, I’ll catch up and surpass you again. No matter how much it takes. I can’t afford to lose Vincent. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again.”

  “I am going to kill Vega.”

  Vincent stared at me, eyes piercing through me, before it was like something clicked inside his mind.

  He got up but his eyes never left mine.

  “My family burned to death.” He finally said. “Some died easier but most… they burned. I am the st of my cn and the st of my people. I can’t accept you being ahead of me in this. I need every ounce of power I can get to rid this world of that man and bring down that evil king. Even if it means our Master kicks you out… I can’t stop or go away. I need power.”

  I nodded, knowing that feeling all too well. How often had I felt that way before? The entirety of the st three years. Every single day since I lost my family and my vilge. I didn’t like how he was doing it or the consequences if he were to succeed or how much fucking pressure he put me under… but I’d always understood. Master’s like Master don’t just fall out of the sky.

  “Yeah, well, may the best man win then.” I said as diplomatically as I could.

  “No. May the better Warrior succeed my brother.” Vincent said as he passed me by.

  I froze for a moment. Brother huh…

  “Now come on. Let’s see how well you’re going to do on the Stairmaster today.” He smirked, for once. I looked down at my shaking, probably nearly broken legs and scowled.

  He won that competition that day.

  ******

  “Man, you two are nuts. I mean really, I almost had to get better healing tanks. That’s a lie, there are no better healing tanks, but still. Anyway, you guys destroyed your bodies, oof.”

  I lightly gred at Master while Vincent just looked dumbfounded at the words. I was getting used to Master’s casual nonsense but that didn’t make it any better to hear.

  “Well, anyway. The two weeks are over now and your power levels sure show the results.”

  [18]

  [18]

  Three levels in two weeks may not sound like much but it was. It got harder to go up the levels as you went up. There was a certain point past where master said you started to gain more than one at a time but, that apparently was somewhere past the hundreds…

  At least I hoped we weren’t moving too slowly but it’s not like I could try any harder. Any more would definitely kill me.

  “From this point on, it’s time to learn how to fight. As for how we’re going to start…”

  “Why don’t you two start with a spar?”

  My eyes widened.

  I stared at Vincent and he stared right back.

  I wasn’t going to pull punches and he would show me no mercy.

  It was time to defeat this new brother of mine.

  Warix_Viviana