There's No End to Training (1)
A deep breath in.
A slow breath out.
And then—
"Again!"
A sharp voice pierced her ears. Seo Yoon cracked her eyes open to see... a plush doll bouncing around right in front of her nose.
"That's not the way. Controlling your breath is something you have to do a little more unconsciously. I told you to do it exactly the way you saw Jun do it, didn't I?"
"The way the boss steadied his breathing was..."
"Right, and that too was carved into his unconscious. When you're in combat, what matters is dividing up your breathing in your own way."
The pink rabbit plush spoke with all the gravity of a stern schoolmaster. Cute as it looked, that was all it was on the outside.
And Lee Jun felt obliged to correct the vague part of what she'd just said.
"Siara, you didn't teach me that yourself."
"Wh—whether Pablo did it or I did, it doesn't matter! The point is, this is how it has to be done, right?"
Lee Jun sighed and rose from his seat. Apparently, this one had no talent for teaching whatsoever.
Her basic combat instincts were genius enough that even So Yongryu had acknowledged them... but then again, geniuses were always hopeless as instructors.
"Truly the Heavenly Martial Body."
"Hey! I—I told you not to say that!"
"Why? It's a title granted with the personal recognition of Lady Justice herself."
"It's just... ugh, it's embarrassing, okay...?"
In other words, that reaction was her flustered way of being pleased. Siara had always been weak to compliments.
"Anyway, I called you in because you're better with the body than I am. But at this rate, I'd be better off teaching her myself."
"Well, excuse me for never having taught anyone in my life. Of course I'm bad at it."
"Who knows? The Heaven Beyond Heaven might possess an extraordinary talent for education as well."
"Hey!"
That was another of So Yongryu's expressions of extravagant praise for Siara. Her over-the-top compliments had a habit of mortifying whoever received them. In her own mind, every word was utterly sincere—but for the person on the receiving end... well, it was embarrassing.
"A-anyway. Breathing, breathing is what matters. Against monsters, things devolve into chaos. When that happens, you have no choice but to respond with sheer reflexes—and what underpins those is a prepared breath."
"Siara's terrible at explaining, but she's right."
What Siara was trying to say was this: the moment a battle turned into a free-for-all, what mattered was fighting without losing your own rhythm.
A fight against monsters was the real thing. The enemy wouldn't cut you any slack just because you were tired.
So ideally, you'd simply never tire at all—but that was a privilege reserved for hunters so monstrous they were practically called inhuman. For everyone else, fatigue inevitably accumulated with every passing engagement.
"When you're exhausted, your body won't move the way you want it to. You can't fight at peak condition like you would when you're fresh—so the point is to drill that regulation into your body in advance."
Lee Jun stepped into the training ground himself and stood before Seo Yoon. Some things were too convoluted to explain with words alone; better to simply show her.
"For now, let's call the movement you're about to see my normal condition."
With that, Lee Jun unfolded a simple combination. An upward slash with the dagger in his right hand, two trigger pulls with his left. Then, reversing his grip on the dagger in the same motion, he brought it down in an overhead strike. Simultaneously, he pressed the muzzle of his left-hand gun up against an imaginary opponent's body.
The gun wasn't loaded, so no bullets flew—but the sequence itself was a combo Lee Jun used all the time.
"Familiar, isn't it?"
"Yes. I understand that's how you handle monsters up to mid-grade, boss."
"Then watch closely and see what you make of this one."
This time, Lee Jun repeated the exact same sequence. With one difference: he took the reversal of the dagger a half-beat slower, while the speed of his left hand stayed unchanged. In effect, the order of the final two movements had been swapped.
"So why would the order end up like this?"
"Hmm..."
"Correct answer! Because stamina dropped and his arm strength failed, he chose to close in first and neutralize the enemy primarily with the gun. Then the dagger goes into the throat for the confirmation kill."
"...Why are you the one answering?"
He couldn't imagine why she was so desperate to get the right answer, but Siara was, in fact, correct. To be precise, Lee Jun had steadied his breath just before the dagger thrust—and to cover that lost moment, he'd used the gun first, since it demanded far less strength.
"As you can see, you can't fight every battle on a perfectly even breath."
Consecutive engagements were possible, and any number of factors could knock you off your peak. The environment, your matchup against the enemy, or sometimes nothing more than how you happened to feel that day.
"In those cases, you can't cram every movement into a single breath—and then the sequence necessarily splits apart."
Which was why, alongside raw reflexes, this kind of breathing had to be drilled into the body. So that it came out automatically, split-second by split-second, even without conscious thought.
"What I just showed you was a movement I invented for the sake of the demonstration. But once something like that becomes second nature..."
Knock—
Lee Jun sent Siara a signal with a tilt of his head. It meant: come at me.
"Haap!"
Siara leapt and drove out a fist with all her force. An attack extending from Lee Jun's eye level—and he retreated half a step to evade it.
Phwang—
The sound of air being torn apart rang out right in front of him. She hadn't used her unique ability, so that fist was nothing more than a plush doll's soft blow. She'd made it produce that sound through sheer speed alone.
"...Aren't you swinging those a little too seriously?"
"Heehee, it's not like it hurts even if you hit me, right?"
The moment she landed, Siara drove a fist at Lee Jun's knee. He twisted his body sideways and slipped past it.
"...Tch."
He'd dodged—but not really. If it was this pattern, then what came next was—
Phwang—
A soft blow sank into his solar plexus. He'd known where she'd strike, but he hadn't been able to react to the speed.
"That's one."
Siara flashed a grin and spun her body. Phwak— Still airborne, she pivoted and kicked out at Lee Jun's chest. It definitely didn't hurt, but it was enough to shove him back a step.
"That's two."
And then—
Low? High?
'Low...!'
Pak—
Lee Jun's prediction was right on the mark: a fist arcing up from below. But that apparently wasn't all—Siara seized the hand he'd raised to block and spun her whole body around it. In the split second he caught sight of her, mischief glittered in her eyes.
'...A breath steal.'
Breaking the opponent's rhythm and dragging them into your own. That was how their sparring always used to unfold.
"Whew..."
Breath out. Read the opponent's movement. Then—reverse the flow.
"Ugh?!"
Lee Jun flung his arm violently in the opposite direction of Siara's spin. Without her unique ability and with a doll's featherlight body, there was no way she could withstand that kind of centrifugal force.
Sure enough, Siara went flying toward the training ground's wall.
"This is why I hate doll hands!"
She landed against the wall, cursing her own squishy plush fists.
"Well, you're light, so it works out either way."
"Hmph. I could always walk on walls, you know."
Wow. That's completely busted.
Kwaang—
She kicked off the wall and came barreling back at him. The leap was so forceful that the entire training ground shook. Judging by that recoil... Siara had apparently switched her unique ability on.
Lee Jun immediately crossed both arms in front of his torso to guard. And soon enough, an impact came through strong enough to make his whole body buzz.
"Ugh... isn't this cheating?!"
Yeah, this is what you meant, isn't it?
The moment Siara landed her kick and rose back into the air—
Vmmm—
Lee Jun activated Styx's Shard and caught her.
"Wh-what?!"
Siara hadn't accounted for Lee Jun's brand-new ability. Caught off guard by something suddenly tugging at her, she had no choice but to be startled.
Lee Jun promptly hurled Siara toward the wall. No—he'd used repulsive force, so "pushed" would be the more accurate word. Either way, he'd sent the featherweight doll flying to her heart's content.
Kuung—
Landing against the wall once more, she lifted her head and stared at where Lee Jun stood.
'...Black...?'
Phwak—
With transcendent reaction speed, she evaded the dagger that flashed before her eyes.
"Ha... just how many abilities have you picked up?"
"This is what being back to normal looks like."
"No way... Jun, using powers..."
Then wouldn't it follow that an S-Class who can't use abilities is the abnormal one? Had she never once considered that this might be the natural state of things?
"Haa... you want to keep going?"
"Obviously. Your breathing's gotten rougher—can't very well stop now."
Apparently, Siara was truly serious about this training. Where else would you find an educator this dedicated, handcrafting her own teaching materials like this?
But Lee Jun had caught fire too. That's right—a mock battle simulating real combat was the perfect way to show Seo Yoon a natural method of breath control. He was more than willing to play along for that.
"Fine. Let's keep going."
"Yes!"
Kwaang!
A thunderclap louder than before, and speed to match. She'd apparently cranked the output of her unique ability even higher. In half the time it takes to exhale—no, in a quarter of that, not even half of a half—a fist came flying. The girl who'd been pressed against the wall a heartbeat ago was suddenly right in front of his face.
"Ughk...!"
He blocked the fist—then came the kick. Even with her just-thrown hand still touching his arm, a leg came rocketing in from the right, posture intact. If she'd been a real person instead of a doll, it probably would have struck his temple dead-on. Thankfully, her short legs meant the kick was caught by his raised arm.
...Or not.
"Haap!"
"...Damn it."
The first kick had been for stripping his guard. The real one was second, then.
Peok—
A roundhouse slammed into his jaw. How was it fair for a terrestrial creature to move that freely midair—
{To be precise, it seems she isn't a creature.}
Same difference!
Phwang!
Lee Jun barely dodged the third kick in the chain by rolling across the floor. Damn it. He hadn't meant to go this far.
Tang—
"Kyaa! You actually shot me!"
"...Don't be so dramatic."
What Lee Jun fired wasn't an ordinary round, but a flat-nosed wadcutter. And this one was flatter than the standard kind—a bullet nearly rectangular in cross-section. It wasn't designed for penetration, so against a hunter it did little more than sting and shove. He always kept it loaded for sparring purposes, and as it happened, he'd pre-loaded it today. Lucky, that.
"Right then. Shall we head into round two?"
"Hmm... you're not angry about getting hit, are you?"
"Not at all."
Getting hit wasn't the problem. Getting hit in front of the hunter we're grooming was the problem. A leader's wins and losses set the tone for everyone beneath him. If the boss went around taking beatings everywhere, his hunters' pride would take a hit as members of the agency, wouldn't it?
{Your opponent is S-Class, though. It can't be helped.}
...Starting to get under my skin here?
{Hm? Did I say something?}
Not that he'd deny the substance of it. Lee Jun beating Siara was, of course, impossible. Which meant... at the very least, he couldn't lose.
Clik—
Lee Jun leveled his gun at Siara, who had put distance between them, and spoke.
"What do you think? Call it here?"
"Nnngh... my heart says go all the way, but..."
Still, she, too, glanced sideways at Seo Yoon, who'd been standing off to the side this whole time. Seo Yoon had quietly slipped out of the training ground at some point, so as not to disturb the two of them—even though today's whole purpose was her training.
At this rate, it was impossible not to call it a complete case of the tail wagging the dog.
"Alright... let's stop here."
"An excellent choice."
"Ugh, going all the way with you turns into such a hassle. You cling on like your life depends on it."
"I only survive by treating it like the real thing."
And in truth, Lee Jun's sparring record wasn't bad. He almost never won—but he didn't lose much either. He simply refused to stay down until the fight inevitably ended in a draw.
"Sheesh... your sheer stubbornness is something I have to respect, at least."
He didn't answer that. He merely murmured as he slid the pistol back into his Pocket.
"...If I don't go this far, I can't keep up."
He had to keep proving, endlessly, that he was worthy of standing beside them as a comrade. No one had ever demanded it of him. Everyone in Arcana had always treated Lee Jun as an equal. It was only he himself who needed it.
"......"
The constant, gnawing sense of his own insufficiency. Call it an inferiority complex, in plain terms.
"Jun, how'd the sparring go today?"
"Seven to three. You won."
"Heehee, going smooth on me today?"
"Your ability is flat-out cheating, but... well, nothing to be done."
Siara gazed at him quietly for a moment, then bounced up onto his head. Suddenly saddled with a rabbit plush on his crown, Lee Jun looked upward with a sour expression.
"How many times have I told you not to do this?"
"Aw, you lost, so you've gotta take your medicine gracefully, right?"
She wore an expression that looked, for all the world, downright sinister, stretching both arms high into the air. How on earth did a plush doll manage to move its features like that...
"Fufufu...!"
"......"
Pok—
She gently lowered her raised arms onto Lee Jun's head. Then patted, left and right. And over that, in a voice as soft as one soothing a child, she spoke.
"Well done. You're working hard, aren't you."
"......"
"Mm, I'm sure it's effort that grinds you to the bone. We all know better than anyone what your real ability is, don't we?"
"I've still got a long way to go. So don't feed me empty platitudes."
"Have you ever seen me say things I don't mean, Jun?"
"...No."
Siara was an unusually honest child, constitutionally incapable of lying. Which meant she surely meant every word. And precisely because he knew that, he pushed back. Too much sweetness rots the heart. He couldn't afford to stagnate here—so words like these, he simply had to strain out and take with a grain of salt.
Lee Jun left Siara to her own devices and turned his attention to Seo Yoon, who had watched the whole sparring match.
The original objective was to devote today entirely to her training. Tomorrow he'd have to look after Choi Jeong-hyeon, so he wanted to give Seo Yoon at least a full twenty-four hours today.
"Seo Yoon, let's get back to training."
"Yes, understood."
At those words, Seo Yoon came back in from outside the training ground. And then, for a moment, she simply stood there, staring fixedly at Lee Jun.
What was wrong?
"Actually... I seem to have forgotten what I was supposed to be learning..."
Oh.
"I... I'm sorry."
"No, it's my fault for wandering off track. And, well, you can actually forget what you just saw. I got a little too serious partway through myself..."
Siara had come at him swinging her unique ability around, and that had dragged his focus right along with her. So—guess we start over from the beginning.
"You could've at least behaved yourself, you know?"
"......"
Whoosh—
Lee Jun snapped his head sharply to the side and flung Siara off. She landed lightly on the floor and looked up at him with something like disappointment.
Not that he was about to let her back up.
"Right then, Seo Yoon. Shall we return to the matter of breathing and try again?"
"Yes, understood."
Training resumed. No more detours this time.
At least... not by his own will.