Chương 33: Baptism of Pressure

With the morning bell still five minutes out, the packed hallway buzzed with directed stares and murmurs. Kurisu, ignoring the surrounding whispers, gathered his supplies from his locker. Beside him, Kenji shoved his textbook into his bag. With his hair and eyes permanently stripped of their mundane black, he kept his chin tucked to his collar, glaring at the linoleum to dodge the peripheral gawking.

In a football jersey worn like a badge of honor, Brad shoved his way through the crowd before leaning against the lockers beside Kenji.

"Did you fall into a vat of bleach over the weekend, or are you just going through a really sad anime phase?" he asked, crossing his arms while a few of his friends snickered off to the side. After slamming the locker door shut, Kenji turned to face his classmate.

"Actually, Brad, I accidentally read your history essay on Friday, and the sheer lack of reading comprehension almost gave me a stroke; the whole ordeal stressed me out so much that my hair permanently lost all its color." Brad blinked, his confident smirk faltering while his friends suddenly found the ceiling tiles interesting.

"I didn't do a history essay..." With a sigh, Kenji placed a hand on Brad's shoulder.

"I know, Brad. I know." Stepping around the jock, he tapped Kurisu on the arm, calling back over his shoulder.

"Let me know if you need a tutor for the next assignment, although I really don't think my scalp can survive another one of your rough drafts." Over the course of the next few weeks, the days vanished into an endless loop of news broadcasts, the time measured by mounting casualties and an ever-increasing rift count. Parked three houses down, the dark sedan sat with its tinted windows obscuring the interior, an ever-present fixture observing the Miller home.

Beyond their quiet neighborhood, global infrastructure strained under the weight of these new incursions. Seismic monitors across the Pacific Ring of Fire screamed constant warnings as fissures tore open the pavement in Manila, Anchorage, and Shibuya, unleashing swarms of armored insectoids; London declared martial law as winged shadows circled the Shard, too large for birds and too erratic for drones.

In the Miller backyard, however, the weight was literal as Kurisu balanced his entire body weight upside down on the thumb of his left hand, condensing the air around his own body to a localized pressure easily twenty times the natural order to pump out handstand push-ups, all while Ace, Kellevra, and Kenji struggled against a mere two atmospheres like deep-sea divers.

"Do not stop moving," Kurisu commanded, his voice calm despite the atmospheric anvil on his back.

"Endure the pressure." Kenji gritted his teeth, the veins in his neck bulging as he strained to stand from a squat, sweat streaming down his face.

"I hate... you," he wheezed, forcing his legs to straighten against the invisible tonnage.

"This... sucks." With his nose inches above the grass, Kurisu halted his repetition, craning his neck to look at his student.

"The Tanden is merely another muscle, yet right now, you are all as soft as cotton." Despite the strain, he pushed himself back up, switching hands in mid-air to balance on his right thumb as sweat dripped from his nose.

"You have bulk but lack density, bleeding your power out through the cracks in your focus." Sinking into another repetition, he paid no mind to the atmospheric weight.

"Compress it, forging yourselves to be as solid as stone. Achieve this, and you will move mountains with just a single drop of energy." Through his Zanshin, Kurisu felt the younger boy's internal pressure waver, the core heat fading as his Tanden yielded under the demand of the compression; lacking the strength to maintain his posture, Ace collapsed onto his hands and knees, gasping for air against the flattened grass.

"I can't," Ace choked out, clutching his stomach as if he'd taken a punch.

"It... it hurts." Flipping onto his feet, Kurisu landed lightly despite the oppressive weight, dismissing his localized pressure to kneel beside Ace without crushing the boy.

"This is your limit," he observed, "and that is exactly where your training begins." As the back door slid open, Steven stepped out carrying four shaker bottles, the man raising an eyebrow at Ace and Kellevra sprawled in the grass. His knees buckled the moment he crossed the invisible threshold, the sudden pressure nearly driving him into the dirt before he scrambled backward out of the distortion zone.

"Jesus!" he grunted, brushing off his jeans while glaring at the air in front of him.

"You trying to flatten the foundation, Kurisu?"

"Training," the boy responded. With a shake of his head, Steven extended the bottles, careful not to cross the threshold.

"Here. Whey protein, creatine, and enough peanut butter to choke a horse. If you guys are going to train this hard, you need the right post-workout stack to recover." After relieving Steven of the drinks, Kurisu handed the first to Kenji and the next to Ace, while Kellevra crawled over to clutch his bottle like a lifeline, moving with jerky tremors from the depletion of his Ki.

"Protein?" Kurisu questioned.

"It's fuel," Steven explained.

"Muscles are made of protein; you tear them down, you feed them protein, they grow back bigger. It's simple biology." Ignoring the banter, Kenji uncapped the bottle and downed the mixture. Through his extended perception, Kurisu tracked the nourishment hitting the boy's stomach, observing the liquid calories bypass the slow labor of digestion to trigger a spike in his Tanden's absorption rate.

The fuel transmuted into usable Ki, pumping back out through the Keiraku to flood his exhausted muscles, the energy saturation steadily climbing from the dim flicker of fatigue to burn brighter and sustain the new output. Upon downing his own bottle, Kurisu felt the rapid replenishment of his Ki reserves for himself as the liquid metabolized.

Sensing the familiar draw of life force, Kurisu turned his gaze back to Kenji, observing the boy draw Chi from the grass beneath him, channeling the energy into his Tanden to fuel the repair process alongside the protein. Beneath his gaze, the muscle fibers adapted, fueling the recovery of his Ki through both the nourishment and the stolen life force.

"Well done," Kurisu noted.

"However, do not kill the nature surrounding you." Kenji, acknowledging the warning with a dip of his chin, wiped his mouth as color returned to his face and his breathing steadied.

"Work smarter, not harder, right?" Kurisu narrowed his eyes.

"Intelligently, yes, but with unyielding effort." Lowering his gaze, he examined the empty shaker bottle in his hand.

"The speed of this elixir surpasses even my clan's secret medicines," he breathed. At home, the conditioning of the Tanden was bottlenecked by the hours required to digest solid meals, a delay this liquid eliminated almost entirely; by combining these nutritional "bricks" with the restorative properties of gathered Chi, they could repeat the training cycle endlessly, accomplishing in months what usually took years. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Impressive," Kurisu said, looking at Steven. Steven chuckled.

"You can flatten the yard with a thought, and protein powder is what impresses you?" he noted wryly.

"It's just science. Welcome to modern gains."" Motto," Kurisu stated seriously.

"We need more. Ten bottles," he added, lifting the container.

"Every day." Steven laughed.

"I'm gonna need a bigger blender."

"Drink," Kurisu commanded, turning back to the boys.

"Rest... then fight." The commanded "rest" turned out to just be a shift in their discipline. While the shakes settled in their stomachs, Kurisu lined them up in the center of the yard, releasing the atmospheric pressure completely. The boys stood without their knees trembling, their muscles still humming with the phantom weight of the pressure training.

"Assume the stance," Kurisu instructed, dropping into a wide horse stance. He relaxed his shoulders, his arms hanging loosely at his sides with palms facing upward.

"Now, gather Chi to aid your recovery." His hands began a glacial ascent from his hips toward his navel, fingers curling slightly against the air. Kenji, sliding into the stance, watched the display with a raised eyebrow.

"I hope you're not planning to pulp your finger again, 'cause that was gross enough the first time."

"Don't give him any ideas," Kellevra muttered, shifting his weight uneasily beside him.

"Complete stillness," Kurisu stated, his eyes remaining shut. Ace, Kellevra, and Kenji mimicked the posture, their legs burning as they sank into the stance.

"Connect... grass. Feel... warmth." For several minutes, the backyard remained silent, save for the breathing of the four figures standing like statues in the twilight. Beside the older boy, Ace fought the intangible concept, his jaw tightening, his fingers twitching, his breath hitching with forced effort as he stood stiff and awkward, waving his hands slowly through the air without result.

"Nothing," Ace grunted, standing upright.

"I don't feel anything."

"Quiet your mind," Kurisu instructed, his posture unwavering.

"Until you gain experience, maintain complete stillness, feeling the life force from the earth and drawing it in gently." With a deep breath, Ace shook out his arms before settling back into the stance; he closed his eyes, the subtle shift in his aura signaling a change in focus from the empty space to the grass beneath his feet. This time, a faint sensation answered the draw. Pulled from the earth, a thin, red ribbon of energy drifted up from the lawn, flowing over his body before pooling directly into his palms.

The gathered life force prickled against his skin, emitting a soft crimson glow and a gentle warmth.

"I feel it," Ace whispered, his eyes wide with wonder.

"It's... warm."

"Draw it in slowly, then guide it to your Tanden," Kurisu commanded. Grasping at that warmth, Ace drew it up his arms and to his navel; through his Zanshin, Kurisu observed the boy's vitality return, the exhaustion of the pressure training lifting as the energy settled. In an attempt to replenish the Ki he had burned, Ace shoved the Chi toward his Tanden, but the energy refused to transmute, pooling around the core instead of merging with it.

"It won't... switch," Ace said, straining against the internal blockage.

"I can't turn it into Ki." Rising from his stance with a frown, Kurisu opened his eyes, focusing his Zanshin on Ace to watch the flow as the Tanden physically repelled the Chi, keeping the two energies isolated.

"Why does this happen?" he whispered. Upon sweeping his Zanshin over Kellevra, he found the exact same barrier, the gathered life force pooling around the younger boy's Tanden, healing the surrounding tissue but refusing to enter the reservoir. Pinching his chin in contemplation, he finally looked at Kenji.

"Yet you have no issue," Kurisu said. With his eyes closed, Kenji inhaled, the Chi flooding his system just as it had moments prior, flowing seamlessly into his Tanden, transmuting into usable Ki without a flicker of resistance. Kurisu looked between the three boys, observing the rigid barrier of their biology.

"If the Chi cannot be converted, then so be it," he said in resignation. If their internal reservoirs rejected the life force, they could at least utilize it to rapidly mend their physical fatigue.

"Be gentle," Kurisu instructed, looking back to Ace.

"Do not force it upon the Tanden, but rather guide it to the exhausted muscles of your legs." Relaxing his posture, Ace loosened his grip on the gathered energy; under Kurisu's gaze, the warmth slid down the boy's core, expanding into his thighs as the Chi sank into the tissue, washing away the ache of the squat training, leaving the muscle fibers refreshed.

"Can we use it for attacks anyway?" Kellevra asked, looking at his glowing hands.

"Like a Spirit Gun?" A pang of regret flashed through Kurisu's mind. While he had intended to show them how to heal with the life force, he now worried about their over-eagerness to weaponize it. Handing such a volatile tool to the undisciplined invited disaster.

"It is possible," he admitted, his voice sharp, "but if you lose your focus or draw too deeply, you will simply burn away your lifespan." Beside them, Ace swallowed hard, guiding the remaining gathered energy into his muscles rather than attempting to force it into a weapon.

"Yeah, we've heard this before," Kenji said.

"You have," Kurisu replied.

"They have not."

"Okay, but can we train it?" Kellevra asked, stepping forward.

"You know, like we're training the Tanden? Can we make our Chi capacity bigger so we have more life?"

"Life is life," Kurisu shook his head.

"It cannot be forged, only spent or replenished."

"How do we replenish it then?" Kenji asked.

"That is exactly what you just did, though natural rest restores it slowly," Kurisu explained.

"Furthermore, the size of the vessel depends on age, meaning an elder has a much smaller capacity than a youth."

"So an old guy has a smaller gas tank," Kenji verified.

"Correct, but to flood the body beyond its natural limits, one must siphon vitality from other life, be it plants, insects, or beasts," Kurisu continued.

"If an elder were to use such a technique, even reversing their own age becomes possible, though it demands a massive accumulation of Chi over decades, and it is not limitless."

"De-aging?" Kellevra blinked.

"Like vampires?" Kurisu gestured to his own body, ignoring the comparison.

"That which can be forged is Ki, the physical vessel," he said, pointing to his navel, "and Shin, the domain of the mind," he added, tapping his temple.

"So we can level up Ki and Shin," Kenji clarified, stepping forward.

"But not Chi."

"What about Shin then?" Kellevra asked.

"Why aren't we doing that? Can we train the mental stuff now?"

"Training Shin is highly inefficient at this hour," Kurisu explained, "as the mind will fatigue, causing vertigo and demanding immediate sleep. Therefore, leave such practice for the moments right before you rest." From the grass, he plucked a single, dry oak leaf, holding it up for them to see.

"Replicate this form. Every day, do just one before you sleep." After bringing the leaf to his chest, he formed the mudra, interlocking his fingers inward, pressing his knuckles together, extending his index fingers to form the Diamond Seal.

"On Kirikiri Basara Un Hatta." As he chanted quietly, a light blue aura ignited along the edges of the leaf, bordering the dry brown shape with a soft glow as it stiffened, straightening out before Kurisu tapped it against his fingernail, producing a metallic clink.

"Fortification," he stated.

"Build... mind, slow, like muscle. Shin burns food, needs sleep, same as Ki. Tanden for body, brain for mind, both pull from stomach." Steven, watching from the patio, let out a low whistle.

"Great," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"So I need a truckload of protein to rebuild the muscles, and a mountain of carbs to keep your brains from misfiring. I'm going to end up on a government watch list just for my grocery shopping." With a tilt of his head, Kurisu glanced in the direction of the street.

"Are we not already under constant surveillance?" Kenji groaned, throwing his hands up.

"Oh, come on! At least try and take advantage of the punchline next time!"