Chapter 115 - Yoshiko's Training

*FFFUUUUUUU…* *ssssss*

She does not know how long it has been since she has sat down inside the oven, or how long has she been bathing under Xoz'gekal's flames. This is not her first time undergoing what his teacher calls 'cleansing by fire', but the pain is still the same. The only hope she holds on to during this, is that it will eventually end.

"Yoshiko, Yoshiko, Yoshiko… SAN! Heheheheh~~~"

Hearing the familiar voice from above the oven, she grits her teeth.

Xoz'gekal's provoking voice added in the suffering and almost made her lose her mind during the first ten or so times since he started doing it during the flame baths. 

"Yoshiko… SAN! Are you still… cool in there?" Xoz'gekal continues to provoke her.

When she still living in her previous apartment, there was a neighborhood dog that would not stop barking. For most nights of two months, she lost sleep. She got so sleep deprived that she even had intentions of offing the dog herself after the authorities never did anything about it. In the end, she learned to filter it out of her ears and out of her mind. She always had confidence in her mental fortitude because of that achievement.

"Yoshio-san… Want some ice cream? It's rather deLIGHTful…"

"Yoshiko-san… I hope you're not FUMING in there…"

"Yoshiko-san… I was once inducted to the half of FLAME."

But Xoz'gekal's puns, while funny at first, has become hell for her that even followed her to her dreams, breaking her pride on her mental fortitude very easily.

"XOZ-SAN! SHUT UP!" She yells, even though she knows that Xoz'gekal will not until the flame bath is over.

"Aww.. Why, Yoshiko-san? I thought we were… KINDLING spirits?"

Another smart response, just like she expected. Yelling at the demon however, made her feel a bit better.

A few minutes later.

*FFUuuuu...*

Yoshiko's flame bath is finally over and she takes off her clay goggles and takes out her clothes from her storage ring. Done covering herself, she steps out of the oven.

"Ah. Yoshiko-san… How about we go back to the real world first? You deserve a break." Xoz'gekal greets her as if he did not just torture her with puns.

"You know I can't." Yoshiko would love to leave, but she has a tight schedule and breaking it will earn her some penalties from Red.

"That's too bad. I was going to treat you to a… BARBECUE…" Xoz'gekal shrugs and wiggles his brows.

"Humph…" Yoshiko simply turns around to leave. She was a bit hurt, thinking the offer was real.

"Awww… I thought you had a longer… FUSE… Hahahahaha!"

She grits her teeth hearing the demon's laughter, but at least her time with him is over for now.

Arriving back in her cabin, she looks at the wooden bathtub in it, and sees that Red already prepared her bath.

Stripping her clothes off, "*phew*…" she takes a deep breath to prepare herself.

To anyone else who do not know any better, the bathwater's crystal clarity, and gold-yellow color make it appear very regal that only kings soak in.

After her first flame bath, she herself was excited to dive in the bathwater not only because Red said it will heal her burns instantly, but also because its appearance gives it a very luxurious impression. She could only scream when she found out that its healing properties are almost just as painful as the flame bath itself.

Feeling ready, she soaks in the bath water without any hesitation. An hour later, double the time of her flame bath, she is done with her herbal bath.

The gold-colored water now looks like liquid chocolate not only in color, but also in consistency. Its smell however, is too horrible to compare to chocolate. Looking at how dirty her bathwater is, she rushes to take a shower.

Done washing up, she realizes that she still has some spiritual energy left after her strength training. She then pulls out what looks like a set of medieval knight's armor, and wears it.

After that, she heads to the yard of her cabin where metal poles, standing at least three meters and at most five meters tall, an inch in diameter each, and arranged a meter apart, are sticking out of the ground.

She applies a bit of spiritual energy to her feet and legs, jumps up three meters high, and lands on top of two poles, using them as footholds. Stabilizing her balance, she then activates her resistance seals, limiting her speed and strength to that of a regular non-superioris's.

She then starts hopping from one pole to another at a pre-determined manner.

A few seconds later, *thud* outside the borders of the metal poles, some floating compartments suddenly open up, and from them, tennis balls, baseballs, and ping pong balls start shooting at her at arrow-speed. While the ping pong balls and tennis balls do not hurt her because of her armor, the annoyance and inconvenience they bring is enough to make her lose her balance if she is not careful.

The baseballs meanwhile, are the ones she is wary of the most. Not only do they directly make her lose her balance, they will even rock her if they hit her helmet.

*thck* *thck* *thck*

After dogding, parrying and enduring the hits from the balls, she finally slips up and starts falling from four meters high.

She wants to hold on to the poles, but her armor's gauntlet was designed by Red to prevent her from doing that.

She also wants to land on her feet, but it is already too late for her to fix herself mid-air.

She can only brace herself before, *THUD* hitting the ground on her back.

"Ooofff…" Air is knocked out of her and she feels her organs shake momentarily.

Fortunately for her, after two months of training inside the dimension, her body is already strong to resist injury from such fall, so she gets back up and tries to go for a longer record.

This scene of her climbing up the metal poles and falling from them replays itself for the next hour.

An hour later, after feeling her reserves almost running dry, she takes off her armor and leaves the treasure fragment's dimension. This is the part of her training where she is the most relaxed about and finds the most satisfying.

Even though she is not allowed to leave the gardens, the real world is still a treat to her.

*SSSSS* *HUUUUU* The feeling of spiritual energy running throughout her meridians, and feeling his elixir sea being filled, and subsequently expand at each cultivation session, makes her feel that her daily painful grind is worth it.

Four hours later, she is finally done refilling her elixir sea and her expansion of it has also reached its limit for now.

Arriving back in the treasure dimension, she immediately pulls out a bottle of Red's special milkshake. Even though she loved its taste, and the various flavors it comes with, she has grown tired of it. She has no choice but to drink it however as it is the only thing that can fill her stomach instantly.

While enjoying the drink, she decides to find Red in the dimension. She is sure that he is around as *bang* *bang* *bang* she can hear a soft banging sound reverberating around the silent dimension, the sound that only reverberates whenever Red is inside.

A minute later, she finds Red under the water dam, shirtless.

Red is currently standing with his back against some kind of a stone wall, while folding pillars of wood and stone stuck on rotating wheels, controlled by some rotary machine powered by water from the dam, are continually smashing on his body.

She cannot complain with her training as Red's looks even more painful than hers, even deadly. She almost feared for Red's life when she first saw the scene, but after witnessing such scene for more than two months in the dimension now, she is no longer worried for Red's safety. She finds the it hypnotic instead, and just imagining the pain Red is undergoing alleviates the pain of her own training. Her pleasure of Red's pain gave her the habit of watching him train while enjoying her drink.

A few minutes later, right after draining her fifth bottle of milkshake, she sees Red jump away from the stone wall and soon, the mechanism grinds to a halt.

Red then puts on his kimono as he approaches Yoshiko.

"Wanna try it?" He then asks Yoshiko as he points at the mechanism behind him.

"N-No…?" Yoshiko almost chokes on her drink.

"Oh… You filled your reserves?" Red asks, noticing.

"Yes, sensei." Yoshiko nods.

"Too bad. Maybe next time." Red shrugs as he pulls out a demon core and absorbs its spiritual energy.

"What do you mean?" Yoshiko asks, feeling like she missed out on something.

"Do you know that Kotone and Fumio only cultivate during the night?" Red asks.

"I noticed." Yoshiko is excited to find out the reason why.

"They no longer use the basic breathing technique when they're meditating. Instead, they have an upgraded version of it, and you're ready to learn that." Red explains.

"Thank you, sensei. I can't wait." Yoshiko can barely suppress her excitement.

<> 

Hinohara Village, some hiker's lodge.

A brown-haired woman who looks to be in her 30s steps into the lodge's restaurant. Her tall, fit, and curvy figure catches eyes of the male patrons having their breakfast.

"Hey babe." She shortly joins a brown-haired man at his table.

"Hey. Slept well?" The man asks as he sips on his coffee.

The two get a few glances from the people around from time to time as aside from looking like they are the only ones who do not seem like they are staying in the village to hike, the two look like they just came out of a foreign fitness magazine.

"Yeah. When did you leave the room?" The woman asks.

"Just around 30 minutes ago. Went out to look for an aerial view of the place." The man reports.

"Found something interesting?" The woman asks.

"Nah. Peaceful village and few hikers too." The man shrugs.

"Oh." The woman loses interest as she looks at the menu.

"He's here." The man perks up seeing a skinny Japanese man enter the restaurant.

"Samuel, Eliza." The man stops at their table and greets the couple.

"'sup man." "Good morning, Daigo." The couple greet their translator slash tour guide.

"Join us for brekkie?" Samuel gestures to the vacant seat.

"You sure?" Daigo asks.

"Yeah. Let's eat while you tell us what you found." Samuel insists.

"It's not much really." Daigo feels burdened.

"We're the ones to decide if it's much. Please." Eliza tells Daigo.

"Okay." Daigo sits down, intimidated by the woman's stare.

After ordering, Daigo starts his report.

"Like I said, it's not much. This is just a regular farming village, like I told you. Those who don't farm own inns like this to cater to hikers."

"How about something unusual? Anything that happened in the past two weeks or so?" Eliza asks.

"None." Daigo shakes his head.

"Any missing hikers?" Samuel asks.

"None. I asked around. The locals said that even first-time hikers are not easy to get lost in the trails here." Daigo reports.

"Any other foreigners around?" Eliza asks.

"Well. There is this large Filipino family staying on the other side of the village. Then there are these two gentlemen a few inns away. They stand out even more than you two." Daigo says.

"How so? How do they stand out?" Samuel gets interested.

"The two are wearing casual suits in a hiking village." Daigo shrugs.

"Huh… Weird." Eliza gets curious.

"Do you know where they're from?" She asks.

"I'm not really sure. They speak Persian with each other, so they're probably from Iran. But I heard them talk on the phone separately. One guy spoke British-English. The other guy spoke Hebrew." Daigo reports.

This makes Samuel and Eliza exchange glances.

"How about local legends? Is there one here?" Samuel asks.

"You mean strong superiori?" Daigo frowns.

"Look. I'm loyal to my customers, but if they're here to make trouble, I have my responsibility as a Japanese."

"Jeez. Relax. I'm just asking so that I know who to avoid." Samuel chuckles.

"We just don't want to be inconvenienced by any local tyrants who extort tourists, that's all." Eliza assures.

"Oh…" Daigo relaxes. "Then don't worry. There are no such people here." He reports.

"As for local legends, I heard some interesting rumors among the locals.. It's not a legend exactly."