Hard Work (48)

After some days spent in the hospital, Kyo left for the Royal Palace. He went to the entrance and showed the guards his ID.

They let him in after seeing his name.

Kyo was escorted to the princess' room, where she sat on her bed reading a book.

The escort knocked. "Kyo wishes to see you, is it okay to come in?"

Narumi calls out. "Yeah, sure! Let him in!"

The escort nodded to Kyo, who then opens the door.

Narumi was lying down reading on her bed. "So you actually came." she said. "Almost didn't expect it."

Kyo smiled. "When I say something, I mean it. How come I was welcomed in here so easily?"

Narumi sat up. "I had everyone remember your name. Just in case you showed up."

Kyo pointed at the book. "You into stories?"

Narumi touched the cover and moved her fingertips across the gold symbol of the royal family on the top. "Sort of. It's not a storybook. It's the recorded history of my family. There's something that I'm trying to figure out."

Kyo was interested. "Mind telling me?"

Narumi looked at him, hesitating, then took a deep breath. "My family's homeland isn't Arbok. It's Zedan. The real royal family of Arbok are just regular nobles now. We peacefully overtook the throne because of the intimidation by the Seventh Order. It all started with Sirius, hero of the First Order, becoming King of Zedan. The country was ravaged by the God of Death, so his wife and son were sent to Arbok, bringing many people with them. After things calmed down, they returned, with Sirius' wife Maria becoming queen, and his son Callux, became the next king. In the book, the age of Callux was confirmed to be above the age of sixteen. After the death of Maria, her diary was found among her possessions. In this diary, she wrote that Callux had gotten a woman pregnant during his time in Arbok and kept it a secret. The child was never spoken of, nor heard about until the diary was found. This means, that there are two branches of the royal family. One is in Arbok, with no knowledge of being royal blood, and the current head branch, including myself and my sister. I want to know where the other branch is."

Kyo folded his arms, thinking. "Well, if you were to look for this branch, how would you identify them?"

Narumi looked at him. "I can't. Unless they have a quality that could only be attained by being a descendant of Sirius or Maria. Like my Kodak Magic."

"Why are you so determined to find these people?"

Narumi stood up. "Because somewhere out there, I have more family. Whoever these descendants are, they could be crucial to winning against the Seventh."

Kyo frowned. "How? What could they possibly do?"

Narumi got closer to him and looked him in the eyes. "Royalty won't simply fornicate with commoners on a whim. If Callux had a secret son or daughter, the mother was no ordinary human. For some reason, he felt the *need* to have a child, right then and there, and purposefully kept the child away from the throne. I'm going to find that reason."

She walked over to the door and opened it. "Now, let's go show you our training facility."

Kyo dropped his arms and followed her. They walked down a few halls and took some turns until they reached a pair of large blue and gold metal doors. They were one foot in thickness each.

"I can't open them myself." Narumi took a step back.

Kyo walked towards them. He placed his hands on the doors.

With a deep breath, Kyo pushed with all his might.

They didn't budge.

"What are you two doing here?"

A man in official uniform walked towards them. He had spiked medium length brown hair, fierce brown eyes, and a strong build.

Narumi introduced the man. "Kyo, this is Mugen. He is the head of the Royal Guard. Mugen, this is Kyo, my friend. He's a Gamma Knight, and he wishes to use the Training Facility."

Mugen crossed his arms and looked down at the boy. "A Gamma huh? He doesn't seem all that special to me. He's skinny, and he doesn't give off much of the fighter vibe."

Mugen pointed at the doors. "If you can't open these doors, then you have no right to use the room."

Narumi looked at him angrily. "Mugen! Just open the doors for us! That's an order!"

Mugen hesitated. "But princess..."

Kyo held up his hand. "No. It's fine. He's right. If I can't even open the doors, how can I even have the right to train here?" He put his hands back on the doors. A soft white glow emitted from his body. "Repel!!"

The energy from his hands helped him push against the doors. With all of his physical strength, the doors eventually budged. "Hurraaaaagghhh!!!"

The doors slowly swung open.

After finally opening the doors, they then gradually begun to close.

"What, already?!" Kyo exclaimed.

Mugen walked up to the right door and held out his hand. He easily stopped the doors from closing as if they weighed ten pounds each. He smiled. "These doors each weigh one ton. It's no easy task for a rookie like you. I'm impressed. I respect you now."

Narumi walked inside with Kyo.

Mugen let the doors close back. He bent down to Kyo's level and talked in his ear, firmly. "As the head of the Royal Guard, it is my ultimate duty to protect the princess. If you do anything to her, or allow anything to happen to her, I will personally see to it that you will never fight again. No hard feelings though. Just doing my job."

Mugen stood back up and flicked on the lights. "Welcome to our Training Facility!"

The room was huge. There was a stage built into the floor, at least five times bigger than the one at the Knights Exam.

There were gadgets, weights, special treadmills, and all sorts of high tech tools used for training.

Mugen motioned for the two to follow him. "This facility is used by all members of the Royal Guard. The equipment you see here is the finest in the world, can't get them anywhere else!"

Kyo walked up to him. "What's the best way for me to get stronger?"

Mugen smiled in a manly way. He held his arm out. "For battle strength, the Simulator is the most efficient way! It creates a battle scenario in which you fight bots that collect data based on your performances and then adapts accordingly. The same trick never works twice on them. It can also alter the conditions of the field. Go ahead and get up there."

Kyo walked onto the stage. The stage floor glowed.

A computerized voice was heard. "New user. Facial recognition scanning... complete. Kyo. Gamma Squadron. Scanning physical attributes... scanning... confirmed. Start level one battle scenario?"

Kyo looked over at Mugen and Narumi.

Mugen nodded.

Kyo took a breath. "Yes."

The computer spoke again. "Starting battle sequence."

Then, on all four sides of the stage, pink walls of what looked like energy raised from the floor to the ceiling. They gave off a realistic hologram of a clear sky. Then the floor turned into rocky ground. Kyo could feel the dirt and rocks beneath his feet.

"How is this possible?"

In seconds Kyo couldn't even tell that he was on a stage. It was like being teleported to a wasteland.

The computerized voice echoed through the land. "Initializing opponents. Level one."

Five created opponents were made before Kyo's eyes. They looked like light blue test dummies.

Kyo took on a stance. "Looks challenging enough."

The computer spoke again. "Increasing gravity. Times three."

Almost immediately Kyo felt the air get way heavier than before. His legs felt like they would break. He could barely keep his fists up. "I see how it is now. The gravity is the real killer here. They train to get used to different levels of gravity to get stronger."

After roughly two hours of repeated training, the battle ended, and the world around him broke down until he could tell he was in a training room again.

Narumi was gone, but Mugen stayed.

Kyo dropped to his knees drenched in sweat, hyperventilating.

"Not so easy, is it? The Simulator creates enemies that are made to target your weaknesses. Then, the gravity level is increased to build your body. Currently, I can do the most gravity training. My limit is 350 times gravity."

Kyo's eyes widened. *"350 times?!! That's gotta be impossible!! I could barely handle three!!"* he thought.

Kyo left the stage to drink some water. He came back soon after.

Mugen smiled. "We could stop if you want."

Kyo shook is head. "I'm not stopping until I reach 350 times!!!"

Mugen shook his head. "Children... so youthful and full of energy... very well!! I'm sending you back in on three times gravity!"

Kyo smiled. "Thank you!"

And so every day, Kyo trained in the Simulator for months, for hours a day, every day of the week.

He also balanced that with his missions as a Gamma Knight.

In eight months Kyo was able to train on 125 times gravity.

Every day he opened up the Training Facility doors with ease. He also put on some notable muscle gain.

One day while Kyo was training, Narumi checked up on him. "How's the training going?"

Kyo held up a thumbs up. "It's going great, just one problem."

Narumi cocked her head to the side. "Like what?"

Kyo held his hand out in front of him. "My mystic energy. The white repels while the black attracts. If I hit my opponent with white, then it'll be less damaging, but the opponent will be knocked further away from me. If I do the same with black, the damage maximizes, but the opponent won't be knocked away. This also goes for my energy attacks. I need to be able to use both at the same time, but it doesn't work."

Narumi had an idea. "If you can't use repel and attract at the same time, then why not learn how to switch quickly between the two?"

Kyo looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"If you punch someone, you can use the black energy to pull them in, maximizing your damage, then, on the punch's follow through you should switch quickly to the white energy, which'll knock them away, correct?"

Kyo's face lit up. "Narumi, you're a genius!! Simulator, start level 42 battle sequence."

The computer talked back. "Initializing battle sequence... level 42, completed."

The stage was made so people on the outside could see in but not vice versa.

Narumi stood there watching Kyo fight off tens of enemies by himself. *"It's almost like he's a different person... I've watched him grow as he trained nonstop everyday. He learns and adapts at a quick pace... Kyo, you'll be really strong someday. I know it."*

Kyo formed a sphere of energy in his hand. The sphere was black, but there was a white glow on the outside of it. He pushed it into one of the bots. "Mystic Storm!!!"