Standing in the empty backroom, he took a look at the memory once again. This time however was different. Instead of being an outside spectator, he was now in the body of the old man. "What's this!" Everything in this memory felt like it was the real thing. The old man moved, and so did he. Jake had a weird feeling of possession as he watched his body move differently from what he thought. In a second though, his thoughts had a 180 as the old man effortlessly executed the move. Jake stood on the mats in shock as he moved his hands around.
"It's still me." Sighing, he was incredibly shocked about the memory. He figured he had to learn just from watching which would take much longer but with this new discovery, it would take at least half the time. This was of course due to Jake being able to feel every movement in his muscles when the old man did it.
After a few rewatches, he was finally ready to try it for himself. The first form of the Gale Storm Sword. Opening his eyes, he took a step forward and swung sideways, stepping forward, he sliced on the same path before, just upward. Coming into his next step, he was about to do the final blow but didn't realize he stepped too far forward and messed his swing up. "Gah!" With a clunky sound, the stick hit the mat, and Jake fell to the ground.
"Yo man, you alright?" A voice sounded from the open door, and Jake took a glance up. It was a young man with a worried expression as he looked at Jake. Getting up, Jake laughed awkwardly as he waved his hand, "It's fine, it's fine, I'm just practicing some movements, so you might hear me fall a few times." After receiving a positive answer, the guy left and went to the other room.
"Sigh, even though I say I won't be embarrassed it's still hard to accomplish. What matters though is I push forward." Standing up, Jake took a deep breath as he recalled the memory. Focusing on the movement first seems to be the right call.
Putting down his stick, he wanted to put all of his effort into getting the movement down. With his eyes open, he stepped forward once again. "First step, second step, third… not quite, ouch. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll try again. And again, and again." Every single time he tried to imitate the moves, he always went too far with his last foot and slips.
"Argg! What's the problem?" Rubbing his head, he couldn't understand what was wrong. It was as if he was always coming in with too much energy making him fall over by the third step.
"I guess it's not easy to learn such a great sword technique." Sighing, Jake got up. He decided that continuing such efforts was pointless. If he was blocked in the head, he just had to clear it up. Of course, to do that, he went on the treadmill!
Although he was never much of a runner in lacrosse ever since he started on the treadmill it had become one of his favorite workouts. Just music and mindless running. After an hour, he finally got off the treadmill. He didn't dare look at the memory while he was on the treadmill for fear that he might trip and fall, but ideas started to form in his head about what he could do better.
It was already too late though as it was close to work time. Leaving the gym, he went home and cleaned up before heading to the station. Walking in, he said his usual to Old Bern and got to work. With nothing for Old Bern to give him, Jake was stuck at the counter. He didn't care though as he used the hand grips to strengthen his muscles. When Jake mentioned it to Chad this morning, Chad reminded him to not only his main hand but also each finger. Although Jake didn't understand at the moment, he would be thankful Chad told him in the future.
All the while doing this, he watched the video continuously. He focused on feeling where his legs were and even sometimes switched to the overhead view to make sure he was getting a full picture of it all. After watching it so many times, he never got bored of it. And soon, he heard a familiar clicking of the heels walk in.
Looking up, he smiled when he saw Joana. She seemed much happier as she strutted in. "What made you so happy?" He felt that for once he could finally throw this question back at her. She only smiled, and said, "Oh nothing."
Going into the back room, Jake didn't even care to look as he watched the video again. Hearing the door open again, he saw her walk out. Grabbing his stuff, he too smiled at Joana, "Oh by the way Joana," Hearing him talk to her, she looked up from her book, "As you probably know, I am going to Rainard College." Joana nodded as Jake had previously mentioned the schools he had applied for.
"Well, I wanted to ask since you are there, are there such things as frats and stuff?" Jake wanted to hear Joana's opinion on the frats and other groups to see if it was worth joining any when the semester came. When she heard the question she frowned, "Yes, frats exist but they are all filled with stupid guys just wanting to party and waste their school year. What you should be doing is just studying hard." Joana had a serious expression as she spoke.
Nodding Jake smiled, "Thanks, I'll keep it in mind when next semester." Waving goodbye, he left the store. Walking home, his body was still feeling good, so he opted to run for another hour before finally going home.
Sitting on his bed, he looked at his book in a trance. He was finally looking at his rewards for the special quest, and he found that a new bookmark was there waiting for him to check it out.