The days began to blur together.
Time passed and a rhythm started to form in Eiji's life.
Morning before sunrise.
Training in the yard.
Forest edge.
Market.
Library.
Night meditation beneath the tree.
Two weeks had surprisingly passed without him realising.
He woke before the others almost every morning. Sometimes before the birds. Sometimes just before the sky began to lighten. The matron noticed, of course. She always noticed. But she no longer asked why and accepted it.
Instead, she adapted.
Meals became slightly heavier for him. More mushrooms. More greens. Sometimes a second ladle when she thought he wasn't looking. From the money Eiji gathered, she saved bits of meat for evenings when he needed it the most for the next day.
She never commented on it.
She just placed the bowl in front of him and said, "Eat."
He never complained.
Training became quieter.
Less about numbers. More about feeling and pushing himself harder.
Stretching came first, always slow. He learned how different his body felt each morning. Some days his muscles resisted. Some days they opened easily. He stopped treating soreness like an enemy. He treated it like information.
Squats climbed gradually. Twenty, then twenty-five, and fifty by the end of the second week. Push-ups followed the same path. He never forced extra reps. If his form broke, he stopped.
That rule never changed.
Some mornings his body felt heavy, joints stiff, breath shallow. On those days, Eiji trained less. He stretched longer. He focused on balance instead of strength. He learned to accept slow days without frustration.
Balance drills became a habit. Standing on one foot with eyes closed. Walking the low stone wall near the yard while carrying a small bucket of water, careful not to spill. Slow kicks that focused on control instead of speed.
He practiced falling too. Rolling on the grass. Learning how to protect his head and shoulders. It wasn't something he'd read often, but it felt important.
When his breathing grew uneven, he stopped.
He made sure to never break down again, lest he worried the whole orphanage again.
The forest no longer felt unknown.
Not safe. Never safe. But he had begun to find out little things from it.
He learned where the densest foliage lay undisturbed, perfect to find mushrooms and herbs. Which berries are the best bait for what animal. He learned about the animals at the perimeter of the forest, their tracks, excrements, and habits of some species.
He made use of the patience he had from both lives.
Traps were placed with intention and precision now. He stopped setting random traps in random places. lesser good ones worked better than many poor ones he realised, some traps worked the best in certain areas with certain bait.
Some days, he only caught bugs to use as bait.
He wasn't stressed or panicked, he just learned from it and adjusted everything.
Other days, he brought back something small. A bird. A rabbit, still alive and moving in the snare. His hands shook the first time he dealt with it.
He paused.
Breathed.
Finished cleanly.
The matron didn't ask how he learned to hunt and clean. She only checked the meat, nodded once, and cooked it properly.
At the market, faces became familiar, he started to get to know a few people.
A fisherman tossed him a small, bent fishing rod one afternoon. "Too worn for me. Might still work for you."
"Morning, little helper."
"You're early again."
"Got anything today boy?"
A carpenter let him sweep in exchange for some old wooden traps. Clearly worn and old, but still usable.
The weapon shop owner gave him a kunai for helping him polish and organize his stock.
He accepted whatever was still useful.
Coins came more steadily now. Still small amounts. Still nothing impressive. But enough to lessen the burden of the orphanage by a little and give him some money to use for his other projects.
He learned what to sell and what to keep for the orphanage to use. Which herbs were better dried. Which sold quickly fresh. Which mushrooms people avoided even when edible.
He listened more than he spoke. He absorbed everything from market prices to the gossip about someone's wife.
That was where the real value was.
The library became his anchor, each day spending hours just reading and absorbing knowledge.
The librarian, Miko-san got used to seeing him every day, coming in each day after lunch hours like clockwork. She simply gestured toward the table he favored and returned to her work.
Sometimes she slid a different book onto the table without comment. Other times she would explain a few things to him when he looked confused or if some related knowledge was not in the books he's read.
He took the hint every time.
All the knowledge was stored neatly in his mind, connecting the dots from different books, filling in the gaps in his knowledge that he hadn't learned in his past life.
Training methods.
Survival basics.
Chakra theory.
Nothing advanced yet, still foundational. But with his mature mind, it was advancing. Fast.
At night, beneath the tree, his breathing deepened.
The warmth inside him responded more easily each time. It started to grow warmer as he could feel it move around his body in a certain pattern every time he breathes. Sometimes it soothed him into a trance like state.
It stopped feeling foreign or needing to be actively done.
It started feeling like his. His body started to grow, and he could clearly see the changes.
Kota noticed first.
"You're always doing weird stuff," he said one afternoon, watching Eiji stand still beneath the tree.
"I'm breathing."
"That's boring."
"Then don't watch."
"Fine"
Kota watched anyway.
The next day, he tried copying Eiji's workouts. He complained loudly. His balance was terrible. He fell over twice and blamed the ground.
Kota tried to do push-ups beside him.
He managed two.
His arms shook violently and he collapsed face-first into the grass.
"This is stupid," Kota muttered.
He quit early.
But he came back the next day.
But this time, Mizu followed.
She didn't complain. She just sat beside Eiji and tried to match his breathing.
"Am I doing it right Eiji-Nii?" she whispered.
"You're doing great Mizu, just continue to breathe," Eiji said.
That seemed to satisfy her.
He didn't teach them anything complicated. Just how to sit. How to control their breathing. How to notice their own heartbeat.
Five minutes at first.
Then ten.
They laughed. They fidgeted. They complained.
But they stayed.
The matron watched from the doorway more often now. Sometimes she smiled. Sometimes she looked worried. She never stopped them.
But sometimes, late at night, when she thought everyone was asleep, Eiji heard her cough softly from the living room. He heard her pat her chest repeatedly to try and reduce the pain.
'I have to help the matron more.'
weeks passed.
Eiji noticed changes to his body. Subtle at first, but still noticeable if you really paid attention.
His grip felt stronger. Carrying water didn't tire him as quickly. His balance improved without conscious effort. Sounds at night felt clearer. He reacted faster when something moved in his peripheral vision.
One night, as he sat beneath the tree, something flickered.
Not light.
Not sound.
Words formed briefly at the edge of his awareness.
[Strength Increased]
He froze.
The message vanished almost immediately.
His heartbeat spiked.
"…Strength," he whispered.
It didn't happen again that night.
The next day, during training, another appeared.
[Chakra Increased]
This one lingered slightly longer.
He stayed calm. Forced his breathing steady.
He didn't chase it. He knew he shouldn't.
He remembered the look on the matron's face when he woke up on the hospital bed, how he felt making her sad.
Messages appeared over time. Sometimes sudden, sometimes anticipated.
[Chakra Control Increased]
[Perception Increased]
[Willpower Increased]
Each one came after effort. After patience. After pushing himself enough, right before his limit.
Eiji began to understand.
This wasn't a system that handed out rewards.
It reflected who he was becoming.
One night, as Kota and Mizu slept nearby under blankets, Eiji felt something deeper stir.
The gentle warmth started to gather, condensing at his core, beginning to transform from a light mist to something like liquid condensation.
A gentle pressure, like a massage to his core, hands molding his muscles, pushing pressing into shape.
Words appeared again, slower this time.
[Foundational Parameters Stable]
[Ascension Path: Locked]
[Condition: Insufficient Growth]
Eiji exhaled slowly.
"…Not yet," he murmured.
He wasn't disappointed.
He was patient.
The routine held.
Until one morning, he went out earlier than usual to check on some new traps he had set up farther in the forest to see if he could get bigger animals.
As he checked the traps one by one, from the outermost perimeter, to the relatively deeper traps, he noticed that the deeper traps had more successful and larger catches, rabbits, baby boars, and more. Sadly some of the unsuccessful traps had been broken or empty.
"It seems like my traps can't catch bigger animals, either they broke it when escaping, or nothing can even get trapped with it"
As he continued to walk, "Hmm… with all the broken and damaged traps, should I buy better and bigger materials or keep setting them near the perimeter…"
"I mean the perimeter is definitely safer." He said as he observed a few marks and animal traps. "But the deeper areas are more profitable."
As he approached one of the traps near the deepest parts of the forest where he had set them, Eiji slowed his steps.
This area felt different from the others.
The trees stood thicker here, their trunks wider, bark rough and scarred. The canopy above barely allowed sunlight to reach the forest floor, leaving the ground damp and shadowed even in the morning. The air smelled heavier, layered with earth and the musk from wild animals.
He crouched beside the trap.
The trap had worked.
Too well.
A small shape lay tangled in the rope and wood. Brown bristles. Short legs kicking weakly. High-pitched squeals cut through the quiet forest, panicked and raw.
*Ngiiii-*
A boar cub.
Eiji's breath caught.
'It's still alive, but a little bit young.'
His first reaction was happiness, he caught something that could be sold for more money than his usual catches, or even raised at the orphanage to eat and sell later.
"Wait, I think I remember something from the book about wild animals"
Wild boars are very aggressive, territorial, and VERY protective of their young. Even a seasoned hunter had to be careful of them.
He had heard stories from the vendors of broken bones and more.
'The mother should probably be close by, probably gathering food.'
His hand hovered near the kunai at his waist. The metal was old, but it still gave him a little safety.
Slowly, carefully, Eiji scanned his surroundings.
The forest was its usual calm in the mornings, but the tension made it feel different.
"No signs of the mother boar, I should still have time"
The cub squealed even louder this time as it realized he was walking towards it. Thrashing against the trap as the rope and its wooden frame strained.
"Shh..," Eiji whispered instinctively.
He quickly grabbed some rope from his sack and cut it with his kunai, tying it around the cub's mouth and leg, restraining it as he prepared to bring it back.
"Phew.. that should do the trick" as he wiped sweat off his forehead with the tied up boar cub already in his sack tied behind his back.
*rustle*
He froze, heartbeat quickening.
Across the clearing, partially obscured by thick brush, something moved. Leaves shook. Branches parted.
A massive shadow stepped forward.
The boar was enormous.
Its body was low and wide, muscles packed dense beneath coarse, dark fur. Curved tusks jutted from its mouth, thick and sharp, stained with old dirt. Its small eyes locked onto Eiji with terrifying focus.
The cub, sensing its mother's presence, started to squirm on his back harder.
The mother boar lowered its head and started to kick the dirt.
"Shit-!"
(To Be Continued)
A/N
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