Day 1 – FOREST OF PAIN
The forest outskirts reeked of iron and sweat. Evening bled into night, but training never stopped.
Nifumi stood beneath a dying sun, his hands buried in his coat pockets, cigarette glowing faintly.
"Stand up," he said, voice calm, expression blank.
Itsuki and Ken were already on their knees, coughing blood onto the dirt. They'd been at it since dawn one hour rest, nothing more.
"Come on, princes of pain," Nifumi mocked. "You think your enemies wait for a nap?"
Itsuki forced himself up, glare half-dead. Ken followed, trembling. Nifumi grinned that crooked, wolfish smirk.
"Good. Now, hit me."
Neither saw him move the next moment, both were in the dirt again, ribs screaming.
"Too slow," Nifumi said flatly. "You think killers wait for rhythm? You make rhythm."
He kicked Ken's leg out, then swept Itsuki's arm away like it was air. No wasted movement just brutality.
Hours passed like that. Pain blurred into time.
By night, Itsuki's heartbeat felt off too sharp, too loud. His vision flickered white around the edges, instincts screaming. For a single second, everything slowed. He saw Nifumi before he moved.
A strike landed.
Itsuki's fist brushed Nifumi's chin, just barely.
Nifumi chuckled low. "You felt it, didn't you?"
Itsuki didn't answer he collapsed, bleeding and shaking.
"You die when I say you die. Until then you move." Nifumi said, lighting another cigarette.
Day 2
Morning came grey and cold. Rain hit the ground like static.
Itsuki's body was a map of bruises; Ken's knuckles were split open, bones almost showing.
Nifumi's voice cut through the forest: "Back on your feet."
He tossed them each a knife.
"No killing blows. Just instincts."
They lunged, one after another sloppy, desperate, but sharper than yesterday.
Nifumi didn't block. He phased through. His movements weren't fast; they were precise. Too precise.
"Shintai isn't just speed," he said between dodges. "It's clarity. It's when fear, pain, thought gone. Only instinct remains."
Itsuki's rage built again his heartbeat, faster, faster.
He swung wildly, the knife inches from Nifumi's neck.
"Closer," Nifumi whispered, grin widening. "But still dull."
Ken fell to his knees mid-fight, coughing blood.
Nifumi crouched beside him, cold gaze meeting his.
"You'll never awaken Shintai if you're afraid of pain."
He pressed the knife against Ken's hand until blood dripped.
"Pain is a teacher. Respect it."
When night fell, both were too broken to speak. Nifumi watched the rain fall through the trees, cigarette glowing faintly.
"One hour rest," he said. "Then we start again."
Day 3
By the third day, everything blurred together pain, sleep, rain.
Nifumi didn't slow down. He hit them harder, faster, colder.
Itsuki's eyes flickered white now and then moments of silence, flashes of precision but every time, it vanished too fast.
Nifumi saw it. "You're scared of it," he said. "You're scared of what's inside."
"I'm not—" Itsuki tried, but Nifumi's fist broke his sentence mid-word.
Ken's progress was worst his strikes had power but no control, all anger and fear.
Nifumi kicked him in the chest, sending him flying into a tree. "You're fighting like a fucking human. Stop thinking."
Ken screamed back, "I'm trying! I can't fucking see what you're talking about!"
Nifumi stepped close, his tone suddenly low, cold, almost gentle.
"You don't fucking see it. You feel it. Shintai isn't light. It's darkness you surrender to."
When both collapsed, Nifumi simply said, "Good. You're breaking. That's progress."
Day 4
The sun rose red too calm for what came next.
Itsuki's body finally adapted; his movements were tighter, sharper. He was beginning to feel the rhythm of Shintai.
Nifumi stood before him, bored expression on his face.
"Try again. Don't think. Don't fucking rage. Flow."
Itsuki vanished from his spot his first clean Shintai burst, pure instinct — but it lasted only seconds before his knees hit the dirt.
He screamed, clutching his head, blood dripping from his nose.
Nifumi crouched beside him. "Your brain's burning oxygen. That's the drawback. You last fifteen minutes today. Let's make it thirty tomorrow."
Ken, meanwhile, was on the ground, shaking uncontrollably. Every day, he was a step behind, but he never stopped standing up.
Nifumi noticed didn't say it but for the first time, his grin looked a little less cruel.
"Keep going, brat," he muttered under his breath. "You'll get there."
Night fell blood and rain everywhere but Nifumi didn't stop until both were unconscious.
Day 5
Silence.
The forest smelled like copper.
Itsuki was training on his own, breath steady. His movements finally had some control. Shintai flickered white around him, faint but stable.
Nifumi smirked. "Good. Nephew's finally not useless."
Ken stood nearby, fists clenched, face pale from exhaustion. "I can't do it. I don't feel anything."
Nifumi turned to him slowly. "You're still holding back."
Ken shouted, "I'm not!"
"Then fucking prove it asshole."
Nifumi moved in faster than thought and slammed his fist into Ken's stomach, again and again, until blood spilled from his mouth.
"Prove it, you fucking coward!"
Ken screamed, pain turning to rage, rage turning to something deeper cold, white, blinding.
For a single instant, the forest froze.
Ken's eyes turned pure white.
He vanished from sight and appeared behind Nifumi, his fist grazing Nifumi's jaw barely, but enough to make him grin.
"There it is."
Ken dropped to his knees seconds later, shaking, blood running from his eyes and nose. His body couldn't hold it.
Itsuki rushed over, but Nifumi raised a hand. "Don't. Let him feel it. That pain means he's alive."
Nifumi crouched, flicked his cigarette aside, and said quietly,
"Fifteen percent control. Not bad. Not bad at all."
He looked at both boys covered in blood, half-dead, barely breathing and smiled.
Day 6 — The Mind Break
The forest was a graveyard of echoes wind scraping through the leaves, insects whispering like ghosts.
Nifumi stood before them, smoke curling from his cigarette, eyes cold and flat.
Itsuki and Ken knelt in the dirt, drenched in sweat, blood dripping from their knuckles. Their chests heaved like caged beasts.
"Get up, bastards" Nifumi said, tone lazy but dangerous. "You've rested enough."
Ken tried to move, groaning, and Nifumi's kick slammed him back into the ground.
"I didn't say crawl," he muttered.
He turned to Itsuki. "Stop fighting it. Control it or it'll eat you alive you're almost there."
Then the nightmare began again.
Nifumi didn't train them he hunted them.
Every time they blinked, he was gone appearing behind them, striking nerve points, cutting them open just deep enough to hurt. He fought like a ghost, soundless, merciless.
"Shintai isn't just power," his voice echoed from somewhere in the trees. "It's awareness. When you see nothing, you feel everything."
Hours blurred into one long hallucination.
Ken saw Aya's bloodied face, screaming his name. Itsuki saw Miyu's lifeless body on the ground, her hand slipping from his.
Nifumi forced them to confront every failure, every regret, until their sanity cracked.
When Ken fell to his knees, shaking, Nifumi crouched beside him, voice soft and venomous.
"You think this is fucking pain? Wait until you see what comes after control."
By dusk, both were wrecks skin torn, vision blurring, barely conscious.
Nifumi stood over them, shadows stretching behind him.
"Tomorrow," he said, flicking away his cigarette, "is the last day. You'll either make it… or die trying."
Day 7 — The Awakening
Morning fog clung to the forest like smoke after a massacre.
Itsuki and Ken stood across from Nifumi or what was left of them did. Eyes sunken, blood dried on their faces, muscles trembling with every breath.
Nifumi tossed his cigarette aside. "No more lessons. Show me what you've learned."
Itsuki moved first.
His steps were silent his eyes pure white, glowing faintly. His movements weren't human anymore; they were instinct sharp, unbroken, terrifying.
Every punch carried lethal precision, every dodge born from raw intent.
Ken followed, slower, gritting his teeth as veins bulged across his temples. His Shintai flickered on and off white eyes for moments, then gone again. Blood streamed from his nose, but he kept pushing.
Nifumi weaved through their attacks like smoke, not a hint of effort in his movements. He wasn't even using Shintai just himself.
Each counter hit like a hammer, cracking ribs, shattering resolve, until the forest floor was splattered crimson.
But Itsuki didn't stop.
He screamed, forcing his body past its limit, and for a heartbeat his Shintai stabilized.
The world slowed.
He saw Nifumi move before he moved.
His strike grazed Nifumi's cheek drawing a single drop of blood.
Silence fell.
Nifumi blinked, then laughed low and sharp. "Heh… finally."
He grabbed Itsuki by the collar, headbutted him hard enough to send him sprawling, and said, "That's what I wanted to see you have now seventy fucking percent control."
Ken, shaking violently, activated his Shintai fully for the first time. His eyes went white, aura burning like a dying flame. He lasted only thirty minutes before he vomited blood and collapsed face-first into the dirt.
Itsuki was barely breathing beside him.
Nifumi stood over them, cigarette hanging from his lips, voice quieter than usual.
"Not bad seventy and fourty percent in a week not bad," he said. "You both made it through hell."
He crouched, looking down at their broken bodies that crooked grin creeping back onto his face.
"You can stand toe-to-toe with death now. Don't waste it."
He rose, walking away as dawn's first light cut through the trees. Smoke drifted behind him, faint and grey.
The week of pain, blood, and madness over.
But for Itsuki and Ken, it was only the beginning.