(Theme: Forged in Blood and Memory)
Dawn bled gray light. Kaito stood at the camp's edge, arms locked like prison bars across his chest. Akari faced him, backlit by mountains that stabbed through mist like shattered ribs.
"This training ground—" Gravel ground under his boots. "Cliff edge? Dragon's gullet? Or just your latest way to kill me?"
Golden eyes held no dawn. "Follow," she said, turning toward the trail. "Or die here. Choose."
Gravel shifted like broken glass underfoot—CRUNCH-SLIDE. Kaito skidded on shale, stones cascading into the void below. One misstep. That's all it'd take. Her perfect solution. He dug bleeding fingertips into rock, hauling himself up. Sweat stung his spine scar. Going to kill me here. Slowly. Creatively.
The trail ended at a fang of rock. Wind screamed like lab sirens. Akari tossed coiled metal at his feet—CLANG!
"Shirt. Off." Her gaze flayed him alive. "That rag's armor against nothing."
Kaito ripped fabric from skin. Cold air bit like scalpels.
Her eyes hooked on the scar—jagged lightning down his spine. White room farewell gift. Her jaw tightened. Silence louder than screams.
The suit clamped—HISSS-KLANK!—steel teeth sinking into flesh. Nodes pulsed venom-blue.
"It learns your fear," she hissed, yanking straps bone-tight. "Fifty kilos now. Five hundred when you tremble." A smile like a scalpel slit. "Hope your soft-world heart doesn't burst."
Her boot kicked dust. "Down. Push till your bones splinter."
Kaito dropped. Impact cracked stone—WHUMP!
Rep fifteen: arms shook like electrocuted wires. Sweat burned his scar. Collar flashed red—WARNING! 80kg—suit grinding heavier.
Her kick cracked his ribs. "Lower. Let the dirt taste your sweat, soft-worlder."
MEMORY BURNED THROUGH:
—3 a.m. lamplight— Finger tracing tendon maps in Gray's Anatomy— Coffee cold as a corpse—
"Tear points... failure thresholds... know where you break..."
Past obsession fused with present agony. He hovered mid-plunge, muscles screaming. Tissue tears to rebuild. Mary's ghost whispered: "Sacrifice isn't noble. It's necessary."
Rep forty.
Suit: 120kg.
Collapse—CRACK!—jaw smashing gravel. Magnetics SHUNK-LOCKED, crushing him into stone.
Akari blotted out the sky. "Up." Her shadow froze his sweat. "Or I leave your corpse for the rock hawks."
RRRAAAAAGH—!
A roar tore from his gut—Rusty's final snarl ripped from the grave. He heaved upward, muscles SNAPPING—suit spiking to 150kg.
For one fractured breath—her mask slipped. Gold eyes flared with something feral. Recognition of the beast in him. Then ice resealed.
"Again."
Dusk bled black when the suit SHHHKK-OPENED. Kaito rolled, vomit scorching his throat—HACK-KOFF!—acid eating stone.
The canteen cracked his shoulder blade. "Suit stays welded to you." Her voice flayed him raw. "Sleep in it. Bleed in it. Breathe in it." She vanished into gloom. "Till I say you've suffered enough."
Moonlight silvered the killing ground.
THUD-CRUNCH-THUD
Kaito ran. Suit grinding vertebrae to dust. 180kg. Each step stabbed his healing ribs. Not enough. Never enough to outrun death.
Under a skeletal pine, he fell into sit-ups. Spine scar blazing like white room needles. Moonlight kissed the old wound—a brand reading FAILURE.
"No... easy death..." Teeth gritted to powder. "...just through."
Muscles tore. Reknit. Tore deeper.
First light clawed over the peaks. Kaito stood at oblivion's edge, suit humming at 200kg. Hollow eyes stared at the bleeding horizon. Body screaming. Soul silent.
ORION'S NOTE: "How quaint—a lamb gnawing at its own bones to sharpen its teeth. But can it bite the wolf? Stay tuned, dearest readers."