Chapter 77 - Fumio Back In The City

After parting with Haruto, Fumio proceeds to his apartment.

It has been two months since his last visit, and he is concerned about its state now. After all, he is still paying the mortgage for it.

As he steps into his apartment, he smells a whiff of all sorts of unpleasant smells with his sensitive nose, so goes to open his windows to let the smell out.

"I wonder when boss will teach me how to make seals?" He gets wishful seeing the dust and spunk that has accumulated in his apartment.

He is in no mood to clean however, and after seeing that there are no signs of break-ins or any of his appliances missing, he steps to his veranda.

"Nice." He smiles, pleased to see the clear night sky.

He then leans over the ledge of his veranda, and looks up to find the location of Red's veranda a few floors above.

After gauging a few things in his mind, he activates the invisibility illusion on his kimono. Then, he jumps to the wall beside his veranda, attaching himself to it, with no footholds or cracks for him to hold on to.

"The lizard" as Fumio calls it, is an unnamed elixir control training method that Red taught him. As for why he dubbed the training method as such, is because it allows him to easily climb walls as easy as a lizard does.

By applying spiritual energy to any part of his body, and shaping that spiritual energy into something suction-like, he can easily traverse vertical surfaces no matter how smooth, as long as he has enough spirit energy to do so.

After an easy climb, Fumio successfully reaches the veranda of Red's apartment. He then takes out the key Red gave him, unlocks the backdoor, and steps into Red's apartment.

"Damn. Clean as ever." Fumio sighs as soon as he turns on the lights, revealing Red's immaculately clean apartment.

"Well. Looks more like an apartment now." The plants that he bought for Red during the first months being under Red's employ, which Red grew to make his own mini garden in his living room, were already transferred to Red's garden.

"There." Fumio does not bother looking around and instead spots a small cabinet next to Red's couch.

He then goes to open the drawers, and he finds the things he is looking for; eight postcard sized metallic plates. He takes the plates and goes back to the veranda.

"Boss said I should…"

He then puts down the plates to the floor and arranges them in a formation that Red instructed him to. Then, he sends a pump of his spiritual energy to the plates. As soon as he does, *voom* He immediately feels the spiritual energy in the atmosphere gather around the middle of the formation.

"Whoa… nice. It's almost as rich as Boss's garden." He sighs in wonder at the thickness of spiritual energy.

After getting over the scene, Fumio simply sits down in the middle of the formation in a lotus position, and starts meditating. He then holds his breath as he activates a few spirit meridians nearest to his core.

Soon he feels that the moonlight shining on his body is no longer just light but is some energy he can feel. And he feels that that energy allows him to absorb more condensed spiritual energy.

The Celestial Body Breathing Technique. The first cultivation technique that Red used in this world, was introduced to Fumio by Red a few days ago.

Fumio noticed that the technique allows him to refill his reserves faster, and also allows him to expand his Elixir Sea faster.

Not only that, he also realized that the breathing method is leagues more efficient in absorbing spiritual energy than the basic breathing technique. Fumio came up with a comparison between his old and new breathing techniques.

The Basic Breathing Technique is like fetching water with a cup that has a huge hole at the bottom of it, while the Celestial Body Breathing Technique is like scooping water with a huge pristine bucket.

So even though the atmospheric spiritual energy in the city, even with the help of 8 spiritual energy gathering formations, is thinner than in Red's hill, his new cultivation method allows him to absorb it better by making use of the moonlight.

This is also the reason why Red has no problem in having Fumio Cultivate in the city because Fumio's problem is no longer with the thickness of spiritual energy, but the rate at which Fumio's can take in spiritual energy.

Once Fumio grows strong enough to require thicker spiritual energy, he will go back to Red's hill.

"Huuuuu…. Huff huff huff."

A few seconds later, Fumio gasps for air as he stops his Celestial Body Breathing Technique and switches back to his Basic Breathing Technique. 

"Damn. Just 15 seconds of absorption with one breath." He shakes his head.

"Boss said he can do a few hundred to a thousand seconds of absorption with one breath." He bitterly compares.

"I wonder how much he can absorb if he can do it for that long?" He notices that the longer he executes Celestial Body Breathing Technique in one go, the thicker the spiritual energy he can absorb.

"What am I comparing myself to Boss for? He is decades ahead of me." He soon gets over his frustration however.

…

A few hours later, Fumio's Elixir Sea is now filled with spiritual energy once again and he feels proud at how it looks. Compared to more than two months ago when he just began his spiritual energy refinement, his Elixir Sea that looked like a puddle after a rain, has become deeper and wider, and now looks like a basin sized pond. He then checks the time and sees that it is already 2 in the morning.

Usually, filling his reserves, he would continue on cultivating to expand his Elixir Sea. But after his work earlier in Muscle Masters, his mind is too spent to focus. 

"Hmm. I'll probably sleep like a baby, so maybe I'll wake up at 8… perfect." He ultimately decides to go to bed.

He has an appointment later. 

<>

Chofu City.

Chofu Combat Gym.

"Why did you want to meet me here? You wanna spar or something?" Fire Colossus arrives in front of the combat gym building, and greets the already waiting Blade Tornado.

"Nah… I have an appointment  with Old Phantom's uhh… student. I thought it might interest you." Blade Tornado says and smirks, satisfied with the surprise that appears on his friend's face.

"He has a student?" Fire Colossus asks.

"Correction. Students. I met two of his students two months ago. He might have more." Blade Tornado shares.

"Huh… so. Where's that student?" Fire Colossus looks around?

"He's already waiting inside… he asked me last night if I was interested in a spar." Blade Tornado says as he leads the way in.

"While I'm excited to see action… I'm not here just to watch, right?" Fire Colossus wants to engage in the action himself.

"We'll see.." Blade Tornado simply says cryptically

…

"Fukashi-san! Haha! I thought you already forgot about me!" Blade Tornado greets the disguised Fumio as soon as he and Fire Colossus arrive in the combat room that Fumio rented.

"I'm not the type to break promises, Blade-san. I have just been very busy since that day." Fumio, while having a good first meeting with Blade Tornado, is pleasantly surprised by the man's friendly attitude towards him after a long time.

"And… Mr. Fire Colossus. It's a pleasure to meet you." He also greets Fire Colossus.

"I've seen you fight twice in the arena." He immediately addresses the man's surprise at him knowing the alias.

"I see. Well, it's nice to meet you too, Fukashi-san." Fire Colossus is pleased with Fumio's attitude. 

After more pleasantries were exchanged, "Well then. We're not here just to suck each other's dicks, right? Let's get to it.", Blade Tornado can no longer hold his desire for a spar.

"You're right, Blade-san." Fumio nods, he too is excited. He cannot wait to use Blade Tornado to measure his progress.

Soon, the two are now in the middle of the room, with Fire Colossus to the side as the only spectator. 

"sshink" "shink"

Fire Colossus is surprised to see the two fighters draw their weapons. Fumio pulled out his practice katana, and Blade Tornado pulled out all his blades.

"WHOAH! ARE YOU TWO INSANE?!" Fire Colossus cannot believe that the two's sparring is seems to be more than just sparring.

"Fire-san. It's not a real sword." Fumio rubs his hand against the sharp of the blade, making Fire Colossus realize that it is a blunt katana.

"Old Phantom's told me to go all out… for my safety." Blade Tornado shrugs.

After Blade Tornado received Fumio's text message about the spar, he texted Red to ask for permission to accept the invitation. Not only did he receive an okay from Red, he also got a warning and a tip. While he still has reservations about Fumio being strong enough, he trusts Red enough to take Red's warning seriously. 

Seeing that Fire Colossus is ready to shut up, Fumio and Blade Tornado finally start.

Blade Tornado starts bouncing on the balls of his feet and weaves from side to side while carefully approaching Fumio.

Fumio meanwhile, holds his sword horizontally with one hand, establishing his reach advantage. While waiting to defend, he also pumps spiritual energy to his brain to make himself focus more. He is not infusing spiritual energy to the rest of his body however as he already knows that he is physically stronger than Blade Tornado. As to what extent, he wants to find out. 

Blade Tornado after getting Fumio in his range, and Fumio letting him, *Whoosh* *whoosh whoosh…* throws a barrage of bladed punches and kicks.

*Clang* *clang* *clang*

Fumio meanwhile is masterfully executing defense maneuvers, efficiently dodging, blocking, and parrying Blade Tornado's bladed limbs. He is not Red however, and one or two blades graze him.

But he does not care, and keeps himself under pressure. He has already gauged Blade Tornado's strength and speed and he is confident in avoiding serious injuries from Blade Tornado's attacks.

Fire Colossus meanwhile, is surprised that Blade Tornado is already going all-out and even more surprised at Fumio's ease in defending the attacks. Aside from Red, he has not seen anyone else engage Blade Tornado in a very direct manner.

Fumio's one handed swordsmanship also reminds him of Red's cane work. .

Blade Tornado, after a hundred or so attempts in drawing blood, realizes that Fumio is adjusting to his attacks very quickly, so he disengages immediately to come up with another plan.

"Holy shit. You're really better using a sword." Blade Tornado praises while trying to hide his frustration. 

"You're ten times more dangerous with your blades, Blade-san." Fumio returns the compliment. .

Inside however, he is a bit disappointed and feels that Blade Tornado can no longer help increase his defensive experience. This makes him switch his motives in the spar.

He then executes the Hasegawa footwork 3, dashes forward at a speed that startles Blade Tornado. Then, he proceeds to shower Blade Tornado with sword strikes at a speed he estimates that his sparring partner can cope with.

He wants to return what he gained during his spar with Blade Tornado two months ago.

Blade Tornado, while defending, is frantically thinking about how to break Fumio's offensive flow.  But soon, he realizes that he cannot. Not with Fumio's superior strength and speed, and his reach advantage. He knows that the spar is near its end. 

few more moments later however, he finds it strange that despite his helplessness, Fumio is not ending the spar, or even using sword thrusts which are difficult to defend.

Then, he realizes that Fumio is no longer acting as a sparring partner, but as a trainer.

Fumio sees the look of realization in Blade Tornado's face, and he stops his assault.

"You did say you need practice against swordsmen." He explains himself.

"Well… I know I already lost." Blade Tornado smiles bitterly in acknowledgment.

"Might as well get a free lesson."