It's been a while since i visited the Dojo, even when i did as a child, i barely trained. I found it bothersome, though it's barely now i realized that only with hard work you can achieve your dreams. That or luck. I was never one to wait for luck to find me, so i just went with the first. Surprisingly the dojo looked just as fresh as i first visited, no wonder, a lot of people train here and i bet the owners started to love this place enough to keep it as beautiful and peaceful as it is... well ignoring the constant groans and cries of anger coming from the people training.

Today i would train myself starting with strength. The place is a dojo for kenjutsu, an art i myself am not lost in but still no better. Though to be good at kenjutsu you have to train your body. And that's where the sand bags come in. A simple exercise, you tie two sand bags to the tips of a log and you run with it or do sit-ups. That's exactly what i did. The pole was surprisingly heavy, i tried to do sit-ups but four was my limit, so just to get used with the weight i started taking walks with it above my head. It took some time before my back and arms went sore but i managed to run with it as I carried it. Pain is progress, it's a sign your body is starting to grow and get used to more heavy burdens. The same can be said about your soul. People able to get pass huge levels of pain are the ones that become stronger, and i consider myself a strong man with that principle.

I took a five minute rest, it's never good to rest too much , your body returns to it's previous state and you just start-over. Now my limit went up, i managed to do twenty sit-ups with the weights over my head. That was good, great even. Maybe seventeen doesn't seem like a big number but it is when you're training your body. The strain wasn't so big this time, the first ten went fast. This time i took ten minutes to rest, i didn't want to overdo it, i had other training sessions in mind, but right after those minutes ended i added a little more weight on both sides. You can't have progress without pushing yourself.

Again the same thing, i walked with the pole in my back to get used to the weight, ran even. This time i took no pause and got directly to the sit-ups. And i managed to do sixteen. A good number? I think not. It's not that it wasn't good, it's just that it made me realize how weak i really was. So i kept training, this time a twenty minute rest, i needed to take a breath, my muscles felt sore due to no training being done in quite some time but if a simple muscle sore can beat me then i can go on and jump off a cliff for my life would be useless. I did not add more weight after i finished resting, i kept it as it was since it was pretty heavy for me at the moment and i needed to get used to it. "And a one, and a two..." and so i kept doing sit-ups this time even lesser then before, twelve. "Fuck me.." i muttered to myself as i dropped the pole and pressed my back on the floor, vision getting blurry. I closed my eyes dropping in a deep sleep. I was walking on an empty alley, everything around me white, as if it was invisible to my eye for i could always focus on the flaming rubble at the end of it all. As i approached it running now, i could hear my mother's voice "USAGI!" she yelled my name, in pain, i rushed into the flames only to see my brother, his eyes burnt from their place, hollow black things staring back at me "WAKE UP!".  

And i did wake up shaking, the soreness from my muscles slowly going away as anger grew inside of me. "Thirty!" so i got up on my feet, weight in my hands above my head and i started counting. With each up and down i saw faces, of my family, of people i've hurt, killed. I needed a nightmare to remember the true purpose of this bothersome training.

I needed to train harder, i needed to become stronger... i needed power.


Strength E->D 750/750
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