The next morning, Heero woke up. He was hoping what he experienced yesterday just a little nightmare of his. However, it was not. He woke the same room when he woke up yesterday.
Next, his Master, which the name he did not know came into his room with a broad grin. Last night, he passed out after unbearable torture inside the bath barrel. As for why he said it was torture because he felt unbearable pain. It was as if there was something gnawed his flesh and bone.
And the person caused all of this was the person in front of him.
"Boy, get up! Get ready for training!" After saying those words, Saint came out again.
Heero's body shuddered voluntarily when the word "training" entered his ear. Though the training was hard, Heero gritted his teeth and moved out of his bed. As soon as he got up from his bed, he found something strange with his body.
He exhausted his body after running a half-day, but he did not feel the exhaustion anymore. Heero felt his body was lighter and full of energy. He just could not believe this. Heero tried to stretch his body, run, and jump.
Heero felt it. He thought that his body grew more durable and lighter. His body improved, though it could not be seen from the outside, Heero felt it. It was only a one-day worth training, and he was only running all day, but it made him stronger. Heero felt happy yet also excited. It meant he could be a hero.
Creak!
The door opened once again.
"Boy, hurry up! Don't you want breakfast? If you don't want breakfast, we can start the training for today!" Saint tilted his head in.
Upon seeing what Heero currently doing, Saint smirked. He commented nothing and disappeared once again.
Heero startled after hearing his Master's voice. He turned his body, but he only found the door left open. He scratched his head and let out a silly smile. He was just too happy.
After that, he went out for breakfast. Yesterday, he met seven beautiful women. This morning he met them once again and got to know their identity. The seven outstanding women were his Master's wives.
He surprised but also admired his Master. These seven women were otherworldly beauty. Looking at his Master's appearance, Heero was not surprised at all. Because it was their first formal meeting, Heero behaved reservedly and restrained.
After breakfast, Heero went out for the training. Today would be the second day of his practice. The same as yesterday, his Master ordered him to run with the same route.
Heero did not complain. He followed his Master's orders obediently. This time, Heero proved his body indeed grew stronger. An hour of running, his breath was still stable, Heero showed no sign of exhaustion. Even after three hours of running, Heero only panted for breath. Another three hours, he reached his Master's backyard.
Six hours of running, he reached his Master's backyard as he panted crazily, but he did not pass out like yesterday. Heero was still awake, but he was out of breath.
He had his body lying on the ground with his face looked up to the sky. The shadow hovered above him, and his Master's face came into his sight.
"We will continue after 10 minutes!"
Heero nodded his head, then suddenly, he remembered something.
"Master, may I know your name?" Though he was still not a hero, he felt that the path of the hero opened before him. This because of his Master, he must know his Master's name, he would engrave that name deep inside his heart.
Hearing this, Saint stunned, and his body stagnated on the spot. He forgot about this. He forgot to check his name in Saint's history.
Saint turned his body toward his disciple. His face was still calm as ever, "Hmm, you are not strong enough to know my name! You have to be strong if you want to know my name!"
Saint said it with a straight face as he felt ashamed deep inside his heart to say those words. But he had to make an excuse, he could not answer it with "I don't know!", right? It was ridiculous.
After saying those words, Saint immediately picked up his pace and entered his own house.
Heero found nothing strange with his Master's reply. Instead, it only made his determination to be stronger became even stronger.
"I must be strong to know my Master's name! Only then he can express his gratitude to his Master!" Thought Heero as he saw his Master disappeared from his sight.
Right after 10 minutes, Saint came out of his house. Heero saw his Master was bringing out many weapons with him. He immediately got up though he still felt exhausted.
His Master put various kinds of the weapon before him, sword, spear, bow, dagger, axe, hammer, whip, staff, and more.
"Chose one! Whatever you choose, it will be your main weapon!"
Heero looked at the weapons intensely. But he immediately narrowed his sight into three types of weapon, sword, spear, and hammer. He was hesitating; he even forgot about his fatigue.
Heero almost pointed toward a spear, but he changed to a sword. There were many types of sword, broadsword, short sword, long sword, twin swords, and more. Heero chose a long sword, a sword than his body.
"Good! Your Master excelled at sword! Good choice!" Saint commented. He was good at every weapon, but his main weapon was a sword. Heero chose the sword. It meant Heero could inherit and continue his path in sword technique.
Heero also delighted from hearing this. He immediately moved his hand toward the sword he chose. However, before he could grab the sword, his Master took all weapons back. After that, his Master tossed an ordinary sword.
"Follow me!"
Heero did not ask why his Master gave this sword to him. He just followed his Master obediently with a thought, "Master must have his reason!"
Master led him to a tree that had been cut down, only left the trunk which about the same height as him. However, there was a big difference in the trunk. The trunk was grey, this was the first for Heero to see a tree with grey colour.
Saint turned his body and smiled to Heero, "Your next training is to cut this!"
He pointed to the grey trunk. Heero found something weird within his Master's smile, but he did not question his Master's order. He walked forward and stopped right before the grey trunk.
Heero lifted his sword with both his hand and swung it to the grey trunk. He turned the sword with his full strength.
Bugh!
Arghhhh!
Heero screamed in pain as the sword in his hand bounced back. Throbbing pain assaulted his palm.
"Master, the tree is tough! An ordinary sword is impossible to cut this tree!" For the first time, Heero talked back as he found his Master's order was absurd. At least, he couldn't achieve what his Master ordered him to.
Saint only smiled at Heero and took the sword. He walked toward the grey tree and slashed the sword toward the tree.
Heero's eyes opened wide as he saw the grey tree was cut in one slash. About 5 Cm thick plate wood was separated from the trunk. His Master showed him it was not impossible to reduce the grey trunk.
Saint tossed the sword back to Heero and said, "Cut the trunk! If one slash is not enough then two slashes if two slashes are not enough then three slashes. Do it until you cut the trunk! If you can cut the trunk, I will teach you sword technique!"
Hearing the word "sword technique", Heero's eyes shone brightly. Hero academy in Nebraska City only taught Ki Comprehension and basic technique. For specific technique such as Sword Technique, Spear Technique and more. One had to learn from their Master if they had one. If they did not have a master that could teach them, then you can never learn such a technique.
With the sword in his hand, Heero walked back to the grey trunk. He learned from beforehand event, and he could not cut the grey trunk with his full strength. It only would injure his hand. This time, Heero swung the sword in moderate strength. Though he still bounced back and his palm was throbbing in pain, but it was even better than before.
"Hmm, Master does not set a time to finish this task. I can take my time slowly!"
Bugh! Bugh! Bugh! Bugh…
Heero kept swung the sword toward the grey trunk. In the fiftieth swung, Saint noticed there was blood dropped down from Heero's palm. Though he saw the blood, Saint did not stop Heero.
Heero kept swinging the sword until the sky turned dark.
"Okay, it's enough for today!" Saint stopped Heero.
Saint's words stopped Heero. As soon as Heero heard the word stop, he stopped.
"Follow me! It's bath time!"
Heero's body shuddered. The last night memories were still evident in his mind. The bath which supposed to be comfortable and relieve his fatigue became torture in his mind. Nevertheless, Heero still followed his Master.
Then not long after Heero entered the bathroom, a pained scream resounded.
…
The next day
Heero woke up with full energy, even his hand completely healed when he woke up. Then he continued his training. Running on the same route and hacking the grey trunk. Heero repeated the same training for seven days.
At the seventh day, running was an easy task for Heero. As for the grey trunk, Heero only made only a little progress. Though it was only a few, Heero satisfied with the progress.
In the eighth day morning, Heero received a big basket from his Master. The basket big enough to fill an adult body in. He saw his Master put the basket on the ground. Then he saw his Master jumped into the basket.
"Come, carry me!" Saint grinned toward his disciple.
From today onward, Heero had to carry his Master as he did his running.