Why do the weak have to suffer to the strong?
Training with Tokita's first few videos hurt. If I had to describe what it was like, I couldn't. 75% was conditioning and working out, and the remaining 25% was basic technique. According to Tokita, I had the second-worst body for Martial Arts he'd ever seen, so the first videos given to me by him were all conditioning for the body.
Shinji, or I for that matter, had no proper conditioning, no technique. We were blank slates, in the worst way possible.
Intensive and Extensive cardio for stamina. Walking on all fours using my knuckles rather than my hands, striking bags of rice and then stabbing fingers in sand. Stretching, working out.
...
I didn't want to do any of it at all. It was highly demotivating having to do it after getting out of the hospital.
Simultaneously, I knew Tokita would kick my ass if he found out I wasn't giving it my all, and he promised he would come visit soon.
I could tell that when he arrived that my training would be put through the ringer.
I came back home after my end run. A 10-kilometer run and took a shower before putting on clothes. Lifting my arms was a struggle, if an Angel attacked today I would not be able to visualize me running to fight it.
Thankfully, I knew no attacks would come today.
I dragged myself to school, using reinforcement to lighten the weight load on myself.
With a heavy sigh, I entered the school gates once again.
School wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
It was my first impression that people in school looked at me weird. In the original world, Shinji was admired by school classmates for being an EVA pilot, and I knew they admired the pilots... but their gazes weirded me out. Every so often I'd be eating during lunch outside, and I'd feel a dozen eyes looking at me.
At first, I thought it was my imagination, but I could feel the cursed energy coming from the people sneaking about looking at me. Their presences were blurred, cursed energy sensing wasn't exactly super precise, but the fact I could sense it meant they were close enough.
I was asked if the Pilot of the Unit-01 was me, but I rejected the notion immediately. Being hailed as the hero and all sounded cool, but ultimately it would hinder my ability to actually live in school. Getting to know people when you put them in a pedestal is almost impossible.
"Whoo! Physical education Next!" Suzuhara Toji whispered next to me. He had short messy hair, a tan, and was very tall in comparison to me. Then again, everyone else was taller than me, I was stupidly short for my age -- damn you Shinji! "Let's see what you can do, Ikari! You promised you wouldn't skip out today, right?"
I liked his enthusiasm. I often skipped Physical education because my body was in no condition of doing anything after Tokita's training. Today I decided to rest, so I hadn't done morning training, and as such I could participate.
The boys' changing room was on the right side of the building, and the girls' on the other side. It didn't matter much today because the P.E groups were separated by gender. Girls went Swimming, and boys ran.
"Let's see who gets first place!" Suzuhara pointed his finger at my chest with a grin, "We'll make it a competition. The loser has to buy the winner some Ramen." He was confident, I didn't participate, but I did watch. Suzuhara was very athletic, so of course he was confident.
We changed into P.E attire, because it was eternally summer, they had us wearing white short-sleeved shirts with some red trims and very short blue shorts. I was uncomfortable at how short they were.
"You're more athletic than I thought. You do some sports at home?" Aida Kensuke asked, he was Suzuhara's close friends. He was closer to my height -- still taller than me, though -- and wore glasses. His hair was brown.
"Yeah, I do martial arts here and there." I told them as we left the room.
We began by running 400 meters for warm up. The difference between a Niko Style user and a regular human being was too far. My stamina was far better, and my body a lot more conditioned.
"Holy crap! He's still first place!" I could hear Suzuhara running closely behind me, he panted, but kept trying to catch up. I wasn't going as fast as I possibly could, it was a given that I wouldn't use Cursed Energy Reinforcement to out-speed them.
"Guys! Hold... on!" Aida struggled more with keeping up with both of us. It had to do with the fact we were more conditioned than he was. One of Aida's hobbies was to play in the mountains and go camping, but Suzuhara and I did out-of-school exercise every day, and from what I understood, Suzuhara trained hard.
We were the top three during the run, but the distance between Suzuhara, and I was large, about ten or fifteen meters or so. The slow distancing which happened as the race stretched had the first and second place be quite far from each other.
"What are you made of?" Suzuhara panted at the end of the race, putting both hands on his knees. "400 meters is no joke. Going with all you can... I hate it!"
"You two know that we have more to do, right? Today we're measuring 100 meter dash times." Aida panted between every other word.
"Forget it. I won't have the energy to take a step, much less sprint" Suzuhara said with a wince. "Winter soldier over here took all the energy I had with him."
I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I was definitely very tired from the running, but not as much as the other two. The rest of the class finally finished the running with a slow jog, they all seemed somewhat fine.
"Suzuhara, Aida, Ikari! I didn't know you three were that passionate about track and field! Maybe you should try to join the club!" The teacher approached us, "You guys look burned out already, we have dashes, and then a full kilometer run to go!"
"Oni/Oni" Suzuhara and Aida whispered at the same time.
"How about we make it a competition? Another bet." I proposed. Suzuhara chuckled and then looked me in the eye.
"No way." Suzuhara looked at Aida, "So, what Ramen place are you taking us to?" he asked.
Aida reeled his neck back in surprise. "What do you mean, the place I'M taking us to? You pay for Ikari's meal!"
"Nah, whoever came last paid for the other two. That was the deal!" Suzuhara said with a grin.
"Not it wasn't! I had no part in it! I did not agree to this!"
"Guys, it's fine. I'll pay." I said, putting my hand on my hips while maximizing how much Oxygen I took in.
"My hero!" Aida said, putting his fingers under his glasses as he pretended to cry.
"If you insist, man, it's your wallet." Suzuhara pushed himself up and stretched.
"Heartwarming, but we're starting the sprints now." The teacher grabbed two pieces of wood that would act as the gun and stared at us. "You better get good scores, or you're running an extra kilometer today."