Chapter 64: Total Concentration: Constant
On this day, as Seiko and the other two were out on their respective missions, the courtyard felt unusually quiet.
Igarashi found Natsuya and began laying out the next phase of his training.
"Your current cultivation has shown significant results," the Storm Hashira said warmly. "It is time for the next subject. Kokonoe, do you remember the term 'Constant'?"
Constant?
Natsuya frantically searched his mental archives for any scrap of dialogue the Cultivators might have dropped. After a long pause, he managed a weak, "Oh."
Aside from the name, I remember absolutely nothing!
Did I skip this cutscene too?
Seeing Natsuya's awkward expression, Igarashi immediately knew what was going on. His Junior Brother was brilliant, but he had a serious habit of spacing out during the lore segments.
Igarashi wasn't annoyed. Instead, with the patience of a true teacher, he began to explain the core concept of the technique once more.
[Total Concentration: Constant]
Whether it was his own Storm Breathing or the five basic styles, Breathing Styles were essentially combat techniques used to stimulate physical potential through specific rhythmic breathing. Persistent practice would naturally enhance the user's physique, spirit, and vitality over time.
Total Concentration Breathing, however, was different. It traded a massive, short-term burden on the body for a burst of explosive power. Under this "forced" breathing, the lungs were expanded to their absolute limit.
Whether it lasted for a second or several, it allowed a swordsman to temporarily surpass human limits to defeat a stronger foe.
Since Total Concentration had so many limitations and high costs, it was only natural that some people would ask:
Can the duration be extended?
Is there a way to lower the physical burden?
The answer was "Constant."
Over a thousand years, many legendary prodigies had sought a way to push Total Concentration further. They arrived at the same destination: a realm where the hyper-boosted state could be maintained indefinitely.
"Natsuya," Igarashi asked, pausing the explanation. "In your eyes... what exactly is a 'Breathing Style'? And what is 'Total Concentration'?"
Natsuya answered without thinking: "A first-stage Gene Lock and the Kaio-ken."
Igarashi: "?"
What gibberish is this child speaking now?
"Kokonoe. Be serious."
Igarashi straightened his posture, and the casual look on Natsuya's face finally faded.
Natsuya thought for a moment before replying, "A Breathing Style is like a lung-based energy circulation technique—hard qigong. The logic is likely to remove the brain's safety limiters on the body, or perhaps to trigger a massive, manual release of adrenaline to hyper-oxygenate the muscles."
This was the first time Igarashi had heard it described in such clinical terms.
Brain limiters? Adrenaline?
Those weren't words an ordinary kid in this era would know.
He remembered that Natsuya was a skilled medic and brewed a mean cup of coffee. He began to suspect that Natsuya's "unconventional" views were rooted in his unique medical knowledge. He had expected a standard answer about "warrior spirit," but this "scientific" approach derailed his prepared lecture.
Curious, the Hashira pressed further. "And 'Total Concentration'? What is that to you?"
Rather than a teacher lecturing a student, Igarashi now felt like he was conversing with a fellow master. Because the dialogue was tied to a "Key Information" trigger, Natsuya was forced to play through the scene properly.
"Total Concentration?" Natsuya recalled the sensation. "It's a System Overload. You're forcing the hardware to run past its designated thermal limits. Honestly, I think relying on it too much is a bad idea."
"The side effects are brutal."
"Keep this up for years and you're looking at toxic cardiomyopathy or a blown heart valve... assuming you even live long enough to see the symptoms."
In Natsuya's eyes, Breathing Styles were a double-edged sword that shaved off the user's lifespan.
If it was a "Hard" martial art, it focused on external force. If it was "Soft," it focused on internal health. But this? It neither extended life nor nurtured the body. He suspected that even a master of these arts wouldn't live much longer than a regular person—in fact, the accumulation of hidden internal trauma would likely lead to early aging.
It's basically an internal Hard Qigong, Natsuya mused.
If he had the choice, rather than relying on the "Body-Damaging" buff of Total Concentration, he'd rather focus on raising his base stats and sword mastery.
Why use a 2x Kaio-ken on a 10,000 Power Level when you can just grind your base power to 1,000,000 and one-shot Frieza without the debuff?
Natsuya's blunt assessment left Igarashi in stunned silence.
The burden of Total Concentration?
This was a perspective few swordsmen ever bothered to consider. To many, sacrificing their health for a "stronger burst" was as natural as breathing. Most Slayers, once they passed the threshold, only thought about how to burst longer or how to ignore the pain.
Very few asked: Why are we pursuing a 'Burst Meta' instead of just raising our 'Base Floor'?
Has the training path of the Corps been flawed for centuries?
The doubt flickered in Igarashi's mind for only a second before he suppressed it. If Breathing were just a sport or a standard martial art, Natsuya would be right—it would be a path of self-destruction.
But they weren't athletes. They were hunters facing man-eating demons whose biological stats were a vertical wall compared to a human's horizontal line.
Everything changed when survival was on the line. The side effects were acceptable because, for everyone who carried a Nichirin Sword—including himself—they had already made their peace with death.
If it killed a demon, they would trade their life, let alone their health.
"Your perspective is certainly... refreshing," Igarashi said softly. "But we shall discuss the 'Price of Power' another time. Right now, I still have to teach you Constant."
"Natsuya, if you were trying to improve the efficiency of Total Concentration, how would you go about it?"
Multi-class more styles? Natsuya thought. If I master the burst-logic of all five, wouldn't the 'Sum of the Parts' naturally be more efficient?
He knew that answer wouldn't help an NPC. Normal Slayers didn't have a System to balance five skill trees.
Natsuya offered a more "Game Balance" oriented answer: "Reduce the skill's cost and increase its uptime."
Since the multiplier is fixed by the game engine, you just focus on MP efficiency and duration.
Igarashi nodded. "Exactly. Constant is the act of doing exactly that."
He then listed the various training methods he knew for achieving Constant.
Some Slayers used high-intensity physical conditioning combined with breathing into specialized, reinforced gourds until they literally exploded from internal air pressure.
Others sparred while holding their breath or training underwater, forcing the body to find hidden potential in an oxygen-deprived "Limit State."
Some traveled to high-altitude peaks where the air was thin, completing grueling drills in a low-oxygen environment.
The methods varied, but the goal was the same: To forge the lungs and the heart into something superhuman.
"So," Natsuya asked, looking concerned. "Are you going to send me to the mountains or the bottom of a lake next, Aizen-senpai?"
Igarashi shook his head. "No. We stay here in Yokohama."
In the city? Is it going to be the exploding gourd method?
"Then what's the training menu, Senior?"
Igarashi smiled faintly, his tone as calm as ever.
"We start by having you make more coffee."
Natsuya blinked.
Make... coffee?
Did the audio and subtitles for this JRPG just glitch out?
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