Multiversal Missions

Free of the rope, Kazuki got up from his chair, stretched his arms and, finally able to move, took the opportunity to look around and noticed that not too far behind him there was a glimpse of what looked like a wooden house. His first thought was to check it out, but at that moment he realised something that Enea had mentioned during his long explanations earlier, something he had paid little attention to because of all the other crazy and surreal things he had told him about.

"Training? So this is not the place where I will do my first mission?", Kazuki asked.

"That's right. That being is an asshole with no morals, but he has no interest in seeing people die for no reason, so he ordered me to train you before you have to go on your first mission. I have a week to prepare you, and I will do my best to train you, as you don't seem like a bad person, so I don't want you to die, but I warn you: I don't think I'm a good teacher, and I consider myself a bit sadistic, so I advise you to try your best if you don't want to die on your first mission."

"Sadistic? That's definitely not good news," Kazuki thought and then asked, "If he wants me to survive, why didn't he give me a real teacher?"

"I didn't say that he wants to see you survive, I said that he doesn't want to see you die for no reason. They sound similar, but they are different things, because dying for no reason doesn't mean he doesn't want to see you die, but that if you die, there must be a reason that he finds valid. And do you remember what I told you before about these kinds of questions?

Kazuki sighed and said despondently, "Because he finds it interesting".

"I see you are starting to understand. But as I already told you, we don't have much time before the mission, so we'll start right away and since I think you're curious, you'll have to try out your ability first."

Kazuki's discouragement vanished immediately. Even though he had never had much interest in superheroes and the like, having a superpower is still something that almost every person has wished for at least once in their life, and he had been extremely excited to find out what ability he had been given when Enea had revealed to him that he now had something like a superpower, even though he had tried his best not to point it out. Trying not to sound excited, he asked him, "So how do I use it?" to which Enea replied, "Start by pulling the sleeve of your uniform up to the elbow of an arm of your choice; it's not necessary to activate the ability but it will help you to understand it better, then imagine that this arm of yours is wrapped in some kind of cloth."

Kazuki tried it immediately: he pulled the sleeve of his right arm up to the elbow and then began to imagine that it was wrapped in velvet. At that moment, brown bandages, similar to the colour of his hair, covered his right arm, starting from his hand but leaving most of his fingers uncovered, stopping just before his elbow. They were similar to the bandages he used at the boxing club, except for the different colour and length.

"I hope my ability is not just to make coloured bandages, right? If not, that would be rather disappointing," Kazuki asked as he looked with curiosity and hidden excitement at the bandages that now covered most of his forearm.

"Technically speaking, yes, your ability is simply to wrap your arms in bandages of different colours, but these are obviously not normal bandages. Beginning with the fact that not even bullets from a high-calibre gun fired at close range could even scratch these bandages, each different coloured bandage has different abilities that, from what he told me, tend to be activated by punching something, giving some effect to the punch itself, or both. So try to punch the ground and see what happens," Enea replied. Kazuki, no longer able to contain his curiosity about the abilities of these bandages, threw a punch at the ground at the exact moment Enea had finished speaking. Suddenly, a wall of earth appeared in front of the spot where he had thrown his fist: it was about two metres high, three metres wide and thirty centimetres thick and seemed to be made of the same kind of earth as this desolate plain. Kazuki watched the wall with a mixture of curiosity and astonishment, then turned to Enea and asked, "So these bandages allow me to create walls of earth when I strike the ground?"

"That's right, their composition will be the same as the ground they were created on. If you are in an indoor place where you are not in contact with the ground, the walls that will appear will have the same composition as the last ground you touched. In addition, these light brown bandages have two other abilities: firstly, you can move the walls you create with your thoughts, as long as you keep the hand you created them with open; secondly, if you touch a wall you have created with one of your arms, you can cover it with the same material that the wall is made of".

The other two abilities Enea had just revealed had aroused Kazuki's interest, but before he tried them out, there were still some questions he wanted to ask; after all, a good understanding of the abilities he had been given would surely be an essential factor for his survival in the first mission, so he asked: "Is there a limit to the number of walls that can be present at the same time?"

"According to the information that bastard gave me, there shouldn't be a limit, but as far as I know, all the abilities of bandages use up your stamina, so you can't create walls indefinitely."

Now that Enea had pointed this out to him, Kazuki noticed that he felt a bit more tired than before he had created the wall, but it wasn't a big deal: he simply felt as if he had done a light jog of plus or minus five hundred metres, and if that was simply the price for using the abilities of this bandage, then it shouldn't be a big deal; he had confidence in his trained endurance to fight at his best even in the longest boxing matches. But he wasn't done with the questions yet; in fact, the one he was about to ask was probably the most important question regarding this ability: "You said earlier that this ability allows me to wrap my arms in bandages of different colours, so there are bandages of other colours with different abilities, aren't there? If so, how can I use them?" he asked with a slight smile on his face, and Enea immediately replied, "Yes, they exist, but sorry to disappoint you, you don't have them yet. According to what that asshole told me, you get a new bandages of a random colour every time you successfully complete a mission, plus there are special bandages that you can get by performing certain actions during your various missions, sort of like side quests in a video game, but don't ask me what exactly you have to do to get them, because I have no idea. And that's all the information I've been given about your ability, so if there's any other information you're interested in, I'm afraid you'll have to find out for yourself.

Kazuki was a little disappointed to find out that the ability to use a myriad of different skills had been taken away from him for the time being, but he quickly recovered by thinking about how best to use the abilities of the light brown bandage: "The three abilities of this bandage I have aren't that bad, although they aren't particularly flashy, they certainly don't seem to be bad abilities. The ground walls, depending on the speed at which I can move them, I can use them for attack in addition to defence, and the ability to cover my arms fits my style very well..." While he was thinking this, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Enea was stretching, and although this would normally be something he would give little thought to, his instincts told him that this was not a good thing at all.

"Well, since I think I've removed most of the doubts about your abilities, I'd say it's time to really start training," Enea said, turning to Kazuki, and at that moment, a ring appeared on Kazuki's middle finger, which seemed to be made of ice, but for some reason, wasn't particularly cold. He looked at it with a mixture of confusion and concern, only to pluck up courage and ask, "What is that?"

"It's a ring that prevents you from using your ability. Basically, if you try to use it, the ring will produce electric that will give you a very painful shock," Enea replied.

"Why?! Shouldn't you be training me for my first mission? You know, I think it would be very useful for me to learn how to use my damn superpower before I go on a mission where, from the way you described it, I have a high probability of dying!"

"Because I don't want you to use it in the training we're about to do, and I have nothing to teach you about your ability. After all, I don't have the same ability as you and I don't consider myself a great strategist, so I think it's best that you learn how to use your ability on your own, and don't worry, when I decide that the training for the day is over, the ring will stop working until the next day when we start training again, although I don't think you'll be able to do much after the first few days of training."

Most of what Enea had just said certainly made sense: "Not having the same skill as me and if it's true that he's not particularly good at teaching it wouldn't help much to get better at using it," Kazuki thought. But what he had finally said could only cause a great deal of awe, especially considering what Enea had said earlier about his own personality. Kazuki, trying not to show his concern, asked, "So what kind of training do you have in mind?"

"It's quite simple: I will try to hit you with some kind of physical attack and you will have to do your best to avoid it. If you manage to avoid it, I will increase my speed and try to hit you again, and so on, until I think you are ready. The main purpose of this training is to get you used to your enhanced physical abilities and to push your reflexes to the limit. Oh, and don't worry: even if you come very close to death, I will heal you."

With that, Enea disappeared from Kazuki's sight and before he could realise it, Kazuki found himself flying a few metres with a sharp pain in the left side of his pelvis, but it was short lived as he ended up crashing into one of the large black rocks scattered across this desolate plain. Of course, the pain caused by hitting a rock at high speed was excruciating, but less than he expected; in fact, thinking about it, he was sure that a normal person would have died if he had hit such a hard rock at that speed. "So it's true that my body has become more resilient," Kazuki thought as he slowly stood up again, noticing that the pain caused by the rock collision was already beginning to fade and that he could still move his body practically perfectly, the only part of his body that still really hurt was the left side of his pelvis. As he lifted his clothes, he noticed that the area of pain had begun to swell.

"What did you hit me with? I couldn't even see it," Kazuki asked Enea, who was now visible again a few metres in front of him, who replied, "Ah, that was a simple kick, only that I was moving at a speed your body can't perceive yet..." As he spoke, he noticed that Kazuki had already gotten into a fighting stance and said with a slight smile on his face, "I thought you would complain more". Kazuki glared at him and replied, "Don't underestimate me, training is training, no matter how difficult or painful it is, as long as I think it makes sense, I won't give up so easily." The smile on Enea's face widened, "Well then, let's get on with it."

It had been two hours of continuous training now, Kazuki had still not reacted to any of Enea's attacks. His entire body was now bruised and battered, but his mind was still in a state of total concentration, his eyes doing their best to follow Enea's movements and slowly succeeding. By now he was almost always able to see Enea's punch or kick a few milliseconds before it hit him; in all of this he had realised that Enea was slowing down on purpose before he hit him, considering that he was not even able to see him before he started to throw the kick or punch, it was as if he was teleporting. Although he could now see Enea's attacks, his body still struggled to react in time, but he was sure that he would soon be able to dodge at least one attack.

After two more failed attempts, which resulted in a punch to his face and a kick to his stomach, another attack came from Enea. Kazuki's now accustomed eyes could see it perfectly: it was a kick with his right leg, aimed at the lower part of his left leg. Hoping to make it in time this time, he tried to jump with all the strength in his body and finally, for the first time, he managed to dodge an attack from Enea. Not feeling any kind of pain, a cry of pure joy formed in Kazuki's mind, "I did it!!!".But the satisfaction of having succeeded lasted less than a second as he realised that his feet were still not in contact with the ground. If this had been a normal person's jump, they should have touched the ground by now, but he had been so focused on training that he had forgotten that his strength was no longer that of a normal person, so now he was in free fall from a height of at least 3 metres, with no idea how he was going to land! "Damn," was the only thing Kazuki could say before his face hit the hard ground.

When Kazuki looked up, he breathed a sigh of relief to see that his nose was not broken and that the fall had not caused him any particular damage. In front of him, looking down, he saw Enea reaching out to him; he immediately accepted the offer of help, and as he took his hand, Enea said, "Well done, you managed to get through the first phase of this training, and don't worry about the fall, you will soon get used to controlling your strength, but..." That eerie smile that Kazuki had seen just before the training started appeared again on Enea's face as he continued, "Get ready because from now on, I will double both the power and speed of my attacks." And with that Kazuki's hellish training continued for several more hours.