Purple Aura

Shuya decided to leave it for another day.

"Come on, I'll walk you home."

Shuya said.

"No need, I can get home by myself."

"I'll walk you anyway. It's not safe out there for a cute girl like you."

Shuya flashed a perfect smile.

"..."

Mai blushed.

She was still powerless against Shuya's professional smile.

"...Hmph. He says he's devoted to Miss Rena, but he keeps flirting with girls without even realizing it..."

Mai muttered unhappily.

If it weren't me, that would be a very dangerous thing to do, you know.

Shuya, you...

...big dummy.

Shuya: I'm cute, so please give me votes.

Section 62: 53 Purple Qi

After walking Mai home, Shuya took a car back to the company.

He found Inoue Hikoo and told him about his plan to learn martial arts from Li Shuhong.

Inoue Hikoo didn't stop him. He just waved a hand. "Do whatever you want. Just be smart and don't get into trouble."

He let Shuya learn martial arts without a fuss.

He wasn't worried that Li Shuhong might be a fraud. After all, Jackie Chan knew him.

Inoue Hikoo had always given his son plenty of freedom. His requirements were simple: as long as Shuya showed up on time whenever he needed him, everything was fine.

He'd long since started treating Shuya like an adult, leaving most things up to him.

"Okay, then tell Mom for me."

"Got it."

Inoue Hikoo agreed, but Shuya had no idea whether he'd forget a second later.

Anyway, after saying that, he stopped worrying about it.

Shuya left the company and took a car back to the area near his home.

He didn't go home right away. First, he went to the supermarket to buy bento, then picked up a pile of chocolate, and finally bought some snacks to feed the Quintuplets.

He bought a lot of stuff, mostly to eat when he woke up the next day.

Shuya didn't know how Li Shuhong would train him, but he was worried he wouldn't be able to keep going if he didn't eat something beforehand.

The chocolate was for topping up his energy whenever he needed it.

Really, Shuya was just taking precautions. He wasn't sure whether Li Shuhong would have thought of these things.

From their earlier conversations, he figured the old man Li Shuhong wasn't very reliable.

Shuya carried two big bags home, put the bento in the fridge, then took the snacks to feed the Quintuplets—patting them, lifting them up, and generally doting on them. As usual, he waited for Rena to get back before working on raising her affection for him.

Unfortunately, he had to get up early the next day, so Shuya couldn't stay long.

After chatting for a while, he went back early and went to sleep.

At three in the morning the next day, Shuya struggled out of bed, washed up, and ate two of the bento he'd bought the day before.

His appetite was huge now. He ate even more than Itsuki.

At first, Shuya had thought something was wrong with his body, but now he knew it was probably the effect of that Natural Martial Bone thing.

Maybe eating so much was why he was growing so fast.

After eating, Shuya changed into his workout clothes and rested for a while.

At exactly four in the morning, Shuya took the backpack he'd prepared and headed out. It contained water, chocolate, and some bread.

Creak—

Shuya carefully opened the door, but it still made a small sound.

"Phew..."

In Tokyo at dawn in late June, the afternoon heat was gone, and the air was refreshingly cool.

The air was nice. Shuya couldn't help taking a deep breath.

"Good morning."

Li Shuhong appeared out of nowhere.

"Good morning."

Shuya was a little startled.

"Let's go."

Li Shuhong grabbed Shuya, vaulted out of the apartment corridor, and sprang up to the rooftop in a few quick bounds.

"Is this qinggong?"

"Mm."

Shuya stayed fairly calm, and Li Shuhong secretly nodded in approval.

But he didn't say anything.

Li Shuhong took Shuya leaping across the rooftops at incredible speed. Before long, they were far from Shuya's home and had reached their destination.

It was a remote place in the suburbs, with no one living nearby. A single Unfinished Building stood alone amid the weeds.

"I thought it was quiet enough here, so I decided we'd train here. No need to worry about disturbing anyone."

After setting Shuya down on the rooftop, Li Shuhong gave him an explanation.

"Oh."

Shuya looked around. The place was indeed a wreck, with several huge holes in it. It could easily have been used to film a horror movie.

But it was quiet, all right. There wasn't a soul around.

Shuya offered no opinion and simply set down his backpack.

"Teacher, how are we going to train?"

"Of course we'll start with the basics. The current goal is to teach you all the fundamentals within a week."

"A week... Isn't that a bit rushed?"

"That'll be enough. That's how Natural Martial Bone works."

Li Shuhong said.

"Teacher, could you tell me exactly how the schedule will work?"

"Mm. I'll teach you until noon, then you're on your own. You can go play or work on the fundamentals—up to you. I haven't planned the later lessons yet. That'll depend on your level."

"Okay."

Shuya thought it over. It seemed all he had to do was ask Kato Nobunaga for leave.

He didn't know whether he'd be too tired, so he couldn't say for sure whether he'd be able to work out with Mai-chan or study music with Little Senior Sister and the teacher in the afternoon.

But, deep down, he wanted to go.

There was no real point in attending that old geezer Kato Nobunaga's class, but Mai-chan and Little Senior Sister were genuinely easy on the eyes.

If he could, he still wanted to work out and study music with them.

Shuya didn't have any improper intentions, but what man would dislike spending time with beautiful women?

...Well, except for men with certain preferences.

And so, Inoue Shuya officially began his month of intensive training.

The first week's lessons covered how to train the body.

Li Shuhong taught him all the fundamentals.

Stances, hand techniques, footwork, and so on...

How to improve flexibility, basic punching and kicking routines...

Li Shuhong was practically cramming everything into him.

But amazingly, Shuya picked it all up with ease.

As Li Shuhong put it, Shuya's body was born to learn martial arts.

Even if Shuya's mind hadn't grasped something yet, his body would remember after trying it once.

If his movements were even slightly off, his body would feel an intense sense of wrongness and automatically correct itself, settling into the most comfortable and proper posture.

Li Shuhong wasn't surprised. Shuya wasn't the first person with Natural Martial Bone he'd encountered.

Besides how quickly he learned, Shuya was also astonished by his own flexibility. He'd only been training for three days, yet he could already contort himself into all kinds of difficult poses, as if he had no bones.

Li Shuhong merely told him, "That's basic stuff. Don't make a fuss. Everyone, sit down."

And just like that, Shuya tore down the road of cheat-level training.

While he practiced the basics, Li Shuhong would stand to the side, droning on like he was chanting sutras, and feed him all kinds of martial arts principles and basic knowledge.

Of all the training he'd done so far...

The method that left the strongest impression on Shuya was using the "Purple Qi" released by the first rays of sunlight each day to train his body and unlock his physical potential.

Li Shuhong introduced him to a new concept.

Will.

The so-called Power of Will was actually the same as the psychic power often seen in novels.

According to Li Shuhong, the "Purple Qi" brought by sunlight didn't have any particularly mysterious effects on its own. It was merely a kind of method akin to hypnosis.

It was a suggestion.

A suggestion that activated the Power of Will.

At its core, will was simply "belief."

Li Shuhong explained that many miracles only existed if you believed in them.

Even if I die~ I'll still love~

When Shuya heard that line, he nearly sang it aloud.

...Back to the point.

According to Li Shuhong, the Power of Will was another kind of force, on a par with qi.

The Power of Will was the basis for using Strange Arts.

As for what Strange Arts were...

The best-known examples were Taoist Arts, Magic, and Divine Arts.

Li Shuhong didn't go into detail about Strange Arts. He only mentioned them briefly.

Then he brought the conversation back to Purple Qi.