Careful Not To Break Reality

To Rydel, the entire procedure went past in an instant, from the moment his eyes are shut when the operation procedure started and the general anesthetic was injected into this blood stream. When he finally awoke from the slumber, the headmistress, whose name he didn't even know after all these time, was no where to be seen in the room.

And then, he realized that he was not in the operation room anymore, but rather, he is in his own bed room. He tried to sit up on the bed, but then immediately realized something was up. A few straps are tightly wound around him, strapping his arms, legs and torso to the bed.

Rydel could still move his neck, and curled it up to found the straps that were pinning against him against the bed. He shook his arms and tried to break free of it, only to see the straps move along with him and pinning him back down the moment his arms returned to the starting point. There is an elastic mechanism to it.

Rydel tried again with the other arms and legs too, and found the similar kind of thing happening.

'Let's see how tough you are...' Rydel paused for a moment, and then violently yanked on one of his arms up, though this motion did not tore through the straps as he wished. The elasticity of the straps kept it on Rydel's hands and only started to press down hard once the upward momentum of his arms are exhausted, and by then he would have lost all the power and had to drop his arms back down.

It seems like fast movements are not exactly going to helpful here, Rydel thought, so he turned his neck to the side and looked at the particular strap on his left hand, along the body of the strap, there is a hole towards within the middle of the strip on the other side of the pulley mechanism. Perhaps that's the key?

Rydel raised his hand, this time slowly and let the hole travel towards the pulley. Then as it approaches closer and closer, Rydel made an effort to slow down the movement of his arms and maintain it at the exact position that he thinks will be the key to unlocking the straps. Then, as he concentrated further, his arm started shaking uncontrollably, and the harder he tried to maintain the exact position, the larger the amplitudes of the vibrations become.

So this is the motor control issue that came as a result of the enhancements, Rydel thought, and he drops his arm down and took a deep breath, air flowing in through his nose and out through his mouth, bringing in a new layer of precision in his commands of his body.

He tried again, the arms were still shasking, and Rydel is absolutely certain that no matter what kind of mechanism underlies the strap's unlocking process, it sure as hell isn't going to do anything at this rate he is moving.

The process of the nanotechnology enhancements come in two folds, where millions of nanosized drones are injected into one's body and are divided into two groups, the very first group will be fixated to the body's various systems and start the localized enhancement process while the other group will remain in the blood and circulating throughout the body. This resulted in a similar but more pronounced kind of change when it comes to physical and neural muscular strength, meaning the output potential of the muscles and the nervous system combined, and overall bodily endurance.

The drones circulating within the blood only make up a smaller percentage of the total number of drones and serves a completely different kind of purpose.

It took Rydel another hour of trying before he finally gained fine motor control of the shoulder joint and unlocked himself from the straps on his arms. That should be the easy part, since raising one's shoulder is only a single joint motion, and the coordination required is rather simple.

Another two hours went by before Rydel finally gained enough control to support his body and kept it at an incline of what he thought to be precisely thirty five degrees for twenty seconds when the main strap unclicked and set him free. He is sweating all over the place despite the bed's best temperature regulation efforts, and he is finally free at last.

With total concentration in his movements, Rydel stepped off the bed and gingerly walked towards his desk, but couldn't stop in time and rammed his head into the wall. To his surprise, it didn't hurt despite how loud of a sound it make. Rydel dropped onto the chair behind the desk, and saw a small dent on the wall, with cracks extending out from the center of the crater.

You have got to be kidding me. Rydel thought.

Knowing full well that he would not be able to function as an actual normal human being at this moment, he simply went online and ordered as much food as he would need for five days, opened the window right up and started practicing basic human movements.

Valerie was in the same boat, and she tried to speed through the process and ended up breaking her desk in half, snapping the toilet when she sat on it for the first time and punching a hole through her door. As she said it, she refused to live like Rydel does, eating drone delivered foods every day and moving only in her room, but after seeing Rydel gain control of normal walking after day 3, she succ.u.mbed to the process.

'Let me tell you something...' As Valerie glared at Rydel now doing some single leg balance and started swinging his free leg around in multiple planes somewhat still mechanically while her legs are shaking crazily at the simple command of moving to the damaged wall three meters away, 'you have to trust the process, train as often as you can while making small and measurable progress. You have to be patient and trust that your body will adapt. Plus, we literally cannot get injured from being too clumsy at this stage, as evident by your room...'

'I swear to the star, Rold, once I am all trained up and ready, I am going to knock that smug out of...'

Rydel looked up, and saw Valerie's image cracked into various pieces, then he heard her scream and the transmission cut off.

Did she just...break the camera for the video call too?

After five days, Rydel could finally perform the basic movements without much mistakes being made on his part, and everything he does within his bedroom is fully controlled and finally relearnt. He basically trained to move as often as he could, and all of the hours he put in has finally showed up when he stepped outside for the first time and he made it to the kitchen to grab some hot tea without bumping into a couch or killing anyone in the process.

'Is that you.....Rold?' A familiar voice came from behind, and Rydel turned to see Edward Silver and Hannah together, each with small back pack and a drink in hand, 'It's been so long!'

'Yeah man, I hope you are doing well.' Rydel smiled at them, and they returned the smile.

'I hope we can catch up in a bit, but we are going to a class now!' Hannah said.

'Yeah, see you around. By the way, you seem quite stiff so I would recommend going to the flexibility flow class in the afternoon, it has fixed my lingering neck pain.....'

Yeah right. Rydel chuckled under his breath, then he looked over at the big mirror towards the side of the living room for the first time since after the enhancement surgery, and realized something.

F.u.c.k, I am stiff as hell.

Another three days has gone past, and Rydel finally made it outside and started walking for longer distances and period of time, and finally met up with Valerie once again. Now, both of them could move around no problem, but it seems like all of the higher intensity and level physical training is still a long distance away. Valerie did indeed try to punch Rydel the first time she saw him, but her stiff body didn't allow she to properly throw the punch, and Rydel's stiff body didn't allow for him to dodge. What ended up happening is just a scrambled mess of limbs on the ground, and the other road users wisely taking an alternate route.

In the mad scramble to get back up, Rydel accidentally knocked open Valerie's personal interface, and it is shown that there is a new message coming from the headmaster of the academy. Rydel checked his very own personal interface, and saw the same thing.

'What's this about?' Valerie asked as she opened the message up, and Rydel waited for her reactions.

'...I see that you have progressed to being able to move around somewhat freely within the academy premises. Head to the physical training facility gymnastic floor this afternoon at three standard time, and your readjustment training will begin.' Valerie turned up the volume so that Rydel could hear it as well, and Rydel checked his very own message to find the exact same result.

'So, wanna head over there now?' Valerie asked, it's only ten in the morning, but at the current rate of them moving, they might get there too late for the actual training session.

The physical training facility is always rather busy in the afternoon, but the AI at the entrance pointed the two to a back gym floor. As they walked through the hall way, he saw a suit of armor being sat to the side by the wall, and wet strange footprints stains the floor all the way until the entrance of the hall way.

As they reached the entrance and the doors slid open, Rydel and Valerie paused sharply and opened up their eyes in disbelief.

The massive gymnastics floor is almost empty, and at the centre of it, stood an Aquarian, still like a statue. He held four blades in total, while the other two arms are held by his side. He is not even wearing the exoskeleton suit that most Aquarians wore when moving around, and exposing his b.a.r.e skin to the dry air. A breathing mask covers his face, and his eyes are closed as the movements of his practice flow played in his head.

Rydel looked over to Valerie, and saw a perfectly calm, but dangerous women. There is nothing showing on her face, but the fire coming out of her eyes, if not held back by herself, could burn the whole forest down.

'Welcome, and congratulations, you two.' Gold opened his eyes, and looked over at the entrance towards the pair, 'I was assigned to be here and help you two get adjusted to the nanotechnology enhancements. Please take off your shoes and come in.'

Rydel and Valerie did as told, and walked towards Gold in the center. For an Aquarian out of the suits, he stood perfectly still, the muscles on each sides of his limbs co-contracting in perfect symphony and keeping him up right without the need of a set of exoskeleton.

'I hope you will excuse my nudeness.' Gold said, his voice slightly modulated and muffled by the breathing mask, though it can still be heard clearly, 'it's always good to get out of the suit and move around for a while.'

'I didn't think it was possible.' Valerie asked, a hint of disappointment underneath her voice, perhaps that was one of the methods she envisioned would kill Gold.

'For most, it's true.' Gold put all of the blades down, and its now that Rydel realized those are merely wooden copies of the Aquarian blades, and not his real ones, 'but one of the handful Aquarians, through diligent training, could hold their own body in a non-aquatic environment. And the trick to do it is through precise and constant body control and proprioception, being able to know where your body is, and make sure that it goes exactly where you want it to go.'

The pair simply nodded, as it's evident that both of them struggle greatly in that department.

'I acknowledge the fact that human physiology and Aquarian physiology are different, but the learning process and nervous system layouts are surprisingly similar, so I hope my experience would be of help for you.' Gold said, and stepped forwards towards the pair. Valerie instinctively stiffed up and started breathing faster and faster, but to Gold, she just looked like she was nervous, and the change in bodily stiffness is really hard to tell when one is already stiff as she is.

'Now, the way I regained my motor control and movement pattern is not through the rigid repetitions of simple movements alone, as I am sure both of you might have done.' Gold explained, and Rydel is immediately intrigued.

'To be frank, apart from walking, rigid repetions of simple movements are all that I have done.' Rydel admitted.

'As expected, but in order to progress, we need to push past this boundary.' Gold continued on further, as he walked backwards and picked out a small projector and put it in front of the two before turning it on. His voice so patient and his movement so gentle, that Rydel simply could not believe this is the same fight hungry arrogant Aquarian that he bashed in the head with Torelamri's special hammer, but the scars left by the damage is still visible on his face, and the facial reconstruction still couldn't work past the body's natural healing mechanism, though the nanotechnology enhancements should be able to heal it.

'What's this?' Valerie asked, her tone flat and voice normal.

'This is what I think could help you two a great deal.' Gold explained, then turned on the projector, and a hologram is being projected onto the space all around them, with many blank human figures being positioned in various places. Each of the figure held a single pose, and a line of writing is underneath each of them, 'each of the figure here represents a set of movements and martial arts from all of the archives we can get access two. My suggestion would be for you to pick one and start practicing with it. Trying to conform to a set of complex patterns will force your body and your mind to adpat as quickly as I could. And this is how I regained control of my body so fast after the surgery.'

'So you did it with...'

'Aquarian martial arts, yes.' Gold said as he returned to the side of the wooden blades and carefully held them in his hands, treating the practice blade with as much respect as a delicate artifact, 'I was fixated on one particular style for so long, but after one devastating defeat after another, I realized I need to do more, and learn more.'

'I spent so many hours, so that I could master as much of the Aquarian martial arts as I can, and the study speed enhancements from the nanotechnology made it possible!' Gold said, as he started this demonstration in the starting stance for the Steady of the Unyielding Ice, and then performed a few block and parry strikes before transitioning it flawlessly to the Flurry of the Chaotic Waves, the wooden tips making sharp whooshing sounds with his every movement. Then, the footwork transitioned into a sequence of sharp precise steps, manipulating the center of mass as he d.e.s.i.r.ed and moves around the projected figures with pinpoint accuracy, not touching any of them. That's the footwork inspired from the Acquiescence of the Living Grass, if Rydel recalled correctly.

Rydel would not be able to tell if Gold has already mastered the three martial art styles and combined them perfectly together, but it is rather evident that at least a high level of competence is being demonstrated. Valerie's revenge quest has just gotten a lot more complicated. Rydel looked over at Valerie, and she is staring at Gold's every move, her mind undoubtedly racing as fast as it could as she envisions all of the ways she could use to fight against him.

As Gold finished his demonstration and turned back to face the two, Valerie still couldn't see any gaps within his movements, nothing that she could explore. At the current stage, his defense and offense is flawless, and it is really frustrating. The skills Gold possessed alone could cause an immense amount of trouble, and then on top of that, Valerie will have to deal with his artifact.

Unknowingly, Valerie started breathing faster and faster, and Gold took notice.

'Are you okay?' Gold asked, and it is then that Valerie noticed what's going on. With her heart beating so loud that she couldn't hear anything else, she nodded.

'I will be away on a mission for a few days, but I just wanted to show you exactly where to take it next for you guys.' Gold said, 'Please take the next few days and get yourself acquainted with the library of various movements, and we could have a quick spar after I return.'

And with that, Gold left the room, as Rydel and Valerie stood still near the center, and looked at each other in silence.

'It was flawless.' Rydel commented and looked straight at Valerie, his eyes finishing the sentence for him: You won't be able to beat him straight up.

'Like he said, I need to expand my library.' Valerie answered, her beautiful eyes explaining her next moves: I will get tricky.

The projector spaced all of the blank figures out quite evenly, and the system itself always synced up with the personal interfaces. Then the very first thing both of them did was to filter out all of the hand to hand combat fighting styles, since going against a master Aquarian Swordsman with one's b.a.r.e knuckles is just a straight up bad idea, then they are left with all of the melee weapon options, where there is a stark divide between the three categories.

The modern military style, the traditional style, and the unconventional style.

Valerie went ahead and went for the unconventional style, and started going through all of the options, thinking in her mind which style of the combat would be best suited to taking down a swordsman. Unfortunately, when most of the martial arts were devised, six armed squid creatures are merely a thing of science fiction, so the very next best thing would be the counters for human swords man, but then again, so many of the key factors are different, and the level of strength, speed and endurance given by the enhancements means conventional logic would not work.

Then, Valerie settled her eyes on the price, unconventional weapons that would be extremely deadly, countering against swords with massive reach and high speed.

A whip.

Rydel was about to suggest that he be the sparring partner for Valerie, but decided against it once he saw the weapon she has chosen.

For Rydel himself, he couldn't help but go back to the clubs, since it did serve him rather well all this time. He has never been able to dedicate enough time to learn to use the momentum of the swinging club itself in his movements, and now might as well be the best time to do it.

And with that, the pair began their five intensive days of training with whacky weapons.

When your enemy is a six armed squid person, and you have nanosized drones flowing through your veins, a shield and a sword might not suffice, but a flying mace with internal shock generating mechanism may suffice. Rydel has truly missed that special feature, and even though he will not be the one to face off against Gold at the end, it might be worth while a bit later on.

Though to avoid suspicion, he just have to play it out like a complete beginner just excited about being super strong, swinging the heavy clubs like a nuthead.