Zanji walked along the hall way of his hotel slowly pacing about the small hallway He was trying to figure out which books to bring with him on his little training exercise but wasn't sure what. Perhaps start off with some basic books on intros into his new skills he wished to learn. He raised his right hand and opened the door to the small library inside the hotel and walked inside and began looking around the bookshelfs.  He truly wished to learn about martial arts and the art of the sword but he honestly wasn't that great his martial arts needed some improvement not to mention his sword fighting capabilities  was complete shit. He grumbled and ground his teeth in annoyance at his dilemma. He sighed and grabbed a few books and  placed them under neath his armpit and made his way to the hallway. He placed them in a small backpack and headed out to the training field.

It took him a bit to get to the training field but he was finally there. He was so slow he needed to get into better shape. Their was only one way to do that and that was his forte and that was hand to hand combat. A simple enough exercises to get him started would suffice. He tossed his bag underneath a shady tree and got down on the ground and began to do some push ups on his knuckles. It was a good start but he wanted more he needed to be stronger faster and would do everything in his power to get it done. He groaned as his muscles strained under the pressure of the push ups minutes later. He  was able to get one more push up in before he face planted into the grass.  His forehead was sweating slightly as the sun blazed overhead.  

He  rolled over onto his back and lay within the grass just enjoying the clouds passing by as he regained his breath. He smirked as he saw a pair of birds fly over head. They chirped happily as they flew past him and he closed his eyes for a brief moment.  "Nope gotta keep working gotta get stronger gotta be better if i want to achieve my goal." He elevated his legs and began to do crunches as he held  his legs up in the air and began to proceed with his exercising routine. Minutes passed as his muscles in his stomach burned and ached as he continued nonstop to continue his work out routine. He Bit his lip as he  set his legs down on the ground  and gently massaged his gut. those crunches were a nightmare felt like he had been at it four a hour when it was only approximately ten minutes. He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he began to stretch out each leg carefully. It was about time to do some sprinting drills and get his stamina up.

He  looked about for a good marker for him to make at a end point.  About twenty feet away he saw a upturned log and smirked. That would do nicely. He  set himself down on all fours his back hunched upwards his right leg stretched out  while he held his left left slightly crunched but straight at the same time. He took a few deep breaths and took off at full speed running towards the log. His heart pounding loudly within his chest his lungs filling with air and exhaling. His mind raced as he felt his legs beginning to warm up and he skidded to a halt when he reached the log and sprinted back. He would repeat this process over and over again till he felt like his legs would fall off. He  took a small breather once again and wiped his forehead off with his sleeve as he was perspiring more and more. He would need to get re-hydrated soon. But that would come after he completed his exercise.

He slowly licked his lips and spat onto the ground. He needed to do more and more. His legs ached so though he was almost tempted to call it a day on the martial arts training. He shook his head violently at the thought of quitting. He thought to himself 'no you can't quit now you need to keep going think about what mom and dad would say if they were here watching you train.' This brought about a somewhat renewed vigor and energy into him as he thought about his parents. He could easily imagine it his father giving him a cold stern gaze as he watched his son take break after break. Never truly satisfied but his adoptive mother would cheer him on and maybe even bring him a little snack. He chuckled and walked over to a tree and sighed as he began to wrap his arm in bandaging. He was gonna start punching and kicking the tree but it was best to wear some sort of padding as the ones around the trees in the training field tended to be old and beat up.

He took a few deep calming breaths and started with a few light jabs into the mattress tied around the tree. He smirked as he slowly began to pick up the speed of his punches little by little he increased his speed his hands steadily becoming almost a blur as he rapidly punched the mat. He finished strong with  a good solid  punch directly into the mat his arms parallel from each other. He fell to the trees trunk and slumped over and rested his back against the tree he could tell his fighting capabilities had greatly improved and he was most satisfied with the outcome.  He decided though that he would take a little siesta and enjoy this warm crisp summer air under the shade of the tree.

Zanji awoke startled as he panted and looked about at the surroundings. He had He quickly looked up at the position of the sun and sighed it seemed he had fallen asleep for a few minutes. That was not good he should of been training with those minutes instead of resting. He shook his head and slowly got up back to his feet and  leaned up against the tree he was using as a punching bag. He bit his lip angrily as he took a few deep breaths. His muscles ached less now but still they ached all the same. He got into a fighting stance and began to proceed with roundhouse kicks on his left leg. Hitting the tree as hard as he could with all his might. He needed to make up for lost time and quickly. He grunted each time his foot hit the hard trees surface the shook reverberating within his body.

He repeated this process of kicking with round house kicks on his left side. The tree quivered slightly with each kick. A few leaves being shaken loose from the kicks force as they feel onto the ground. His body wanted him to stop working out but his mind was set he would push his stamina to the absolute limit. He panted hard as he took a moment to catch his breath and switch his stance and continue his barrage of kicks with his right leg now.

WC 1219
(stamina training)

He shook his head and stopped and reached out and grabbed his little canteen of water and slowly unscrewed the cap. He brought it up to his lips and began to drink from it slowly enjoying the cold refreshing liquid that went down his throat. He paused from his drinking and took in a gasp of air and put the water bottle back on the ground after securing the cap back on it. He turned back towards his tree and cracked his neck to the side and said "Well then let’s get back to it."

He needed to hit harder faster than what he was doing before he needed to become stronger. He must become strong for his own personal sake especially if he wanted to fulfill his desires and fulfill his plans. He spit on the ground and returned to his fighting stance. He returned to kicking the mat with round house kicks. A renewed vigor flowed through his body as his stamina returned to its normalcy. Rapid punches with each hand moving as fast as he possibly could. He wanted at least to even out the mat as most of the padding was now in the center. He narrowed his eyes in focused as he punched the padding out of the center and back out to the sides to allow him to continue to practice kicking. He unbuttoned his coat and slowly took it off and folded it neatly and placed it on the ground.

The coat was going to get in the way of his training so he placed it by the trees trunk. His golden chain around his necklace to his locket hidden beneath his shirt catching the light of the sun as he closed his eyes. He reached down and grabbed the locket and sat down on the ground his sword on his right side adjacent to his hip. Perhaps he should focus on working on his swordsmanship skills. It was always a good idea to practice them you never know when he would get in a sword fight. But then again he really needed to work on his ranged ability. Though he was without a pistol so it would be a bit more of a challenge than he anticipated.  

Perhaps he would work on his swordsmanship for now. After all it could always use some fine tuning. Then again all his skills could. He chuckled and slowly got back to his feet and drew his sword. He began with a few basic overhead strikes slashing at the air. He would take his stance and beginning chopping at the air bringing his sword down and up again and repeating this process over and over and over again. He would then switch tactics and begin a form of sword kata. Placing his right foot in front of him he would angle the sword adjacent with his hip and began to take steps forwards. Upon the third step he would do a horizontal slash and then quickly twirl and spin as re position himself as if he were fighting an enemy and move behind them. He would then begin an onslaught of slashes as fast as he could each step he would slash at a different direction. He stopped in his tracks and brought his sword in front of him and reached into his left side pocket and pulled out an apple.

He smiled and polished it and positioned his hand behind his back with his sword to his side he slowly closed his eyes and tossed the apple up into the air behind him straight up. He knew it would fall at the same exact space where he threw it would not take but a few seconds. He quickly generated a power three hundred and sixty degree spin his sword slicing cleaning and perfectly the top half of the apple. He opened his eyes and smiled as he looked at his results. "Hmm not bad let’s get some ranged working training in." It was still early in the day maybe an hour had passed while he was training. He reached down and picked up the apple off the ground and placed it on a tree stump and took aim. He held his hand up like an imaginary gun and said "pew pew." he chuckled and looked around and began to collect some rocks around the area. More particularly small ones as they would travel father.

He picked up a good twenty stones and sighed as he piled them up onto the ground. Reaching down he grabbed one and ran his hands across the smooth surface. He sighed and took in a calming breath and began to take aim at the apple. He tossed stone after stone at the apple missing the first few times but then he began to hit it. It fell to the ground and he would walk over and put it back up and repeat this process over and over and over till the stones he collected were gone. His accuracy was indeed improving and he smiled happily and stretched his arms out. He smiled and stretched out his legs and moved towards the apple and dusted it off and held it in his hand. He took the apple and stared long and hard of it and examining the different hits and bruises and small chunks missing. He nodded his head approvingly his aim ha somewhat hopefully improved with these stones tossing. He would head back to the town and get back to his crew they were probably wondering where he had wandered off to. He smirked and picked up his coat and bag and would even eat the apple as a small snack. He slowly put back on his coat and sheathed his sword back in its scabbard and would wipe some sweat off his forehead. He had done a good day’s work out he was most satisfied with is results and could not wait to see what the results would be.


(Zanji Exit)

(training done even more stamina)

WC 1,000
TWC 2,219

40 stamina awarded