Chapter 19 : 19th Stance
With his second mission over, and his Kasugai Crow not appearing straight after he completed it, he figured he had some time to kill. 'I should clean this first', he thought, before he looked at his White Uniform. Whilst he was thinking about that, from his pocket, emerged Yuko. "Is the mission over yet? I'm sick of this smell", he said, before he sniffed his fur that was covered in blood, which seeped through Takeo's uniform.
"Relax, you'll clean it soon", he stated, before he continued his thought, 'On other matters, I need to become even stronger....so far I've met weak Demons....and I still haven't learnt Total Concentration : Constant', 'That'll make me even stronger, so with the time I have right now, I'll try and learn it'.
Maintaining the Total Concentration Breathing state at all times is extremely difficult and taxing on the body. It requires vigorous training to master this form by expanding one's lungs and making them strong enough to perform the breathing technique around the clock, however, with all the training Takeo done on a mountain with scarce amounts of oxygen, he should be able to learn it.
'My body is ready...I guess I just need a durable gourd'.
The training process to learn Total Concentration : Constant involves blowing into a special type of durable gourd. The objective is to blow into the gourd with enough strength to make the gourd break apart. As training progresses, the gourd is replaced by larger and larger variations of the same type of gourd, the largest known gourd is about the size of a chair.
After thinking a bit more, Takeo thought, 'Right now, I'll get cleaned up....and then with the time I have, I'll quickly learn the technique'.
And so spotting a canal, Takeo took off his Uniform after Yuko hopped out, and washed it. Whilst he was washing his Uniform, Yuko was washing his fur simultaneously.
Splat! Splat!
After washing himself, Yuko came out of the canal and shook his body vigorously, causing water to fly out and land onto the floor, creating a few puddles.
With nothing more than a short robe underneath, Takeo waited his clothes dried....speeding up the process, he decided to light a fire, before he laid the uniform next to it.
After a couple hours of waiting near the canal, the washing was finally over, and by that time it was already morning.
'Alright, now it's time to find a couple of gourds', he thought, after he put his uniform on, and Yuko hopped into his pocket.
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After a couple of hours of walking, Takeo found a market-place, centred in the middle of a village. 'It's not just any old gourds....I'll need to find good one's' he thought, before he glanced at all the market stalls.
Looking for a bit, he finally spotted a stall that had a couple of gourds set up. Walking towards them, he saw a frail old man behind a table with the gourds set up.
"Hello young man~", the old man stated, before taking a glance at Takeo's blade and Uniform.
"....Hello, I'm looking for some durable gourds, do you have any?", he asked the old man.
"Durable gourds huh?....Wait here for a minute", he said, before he went into the back of the stall.
After a few moments, the old man returned with a couple of small gourds in his hand, he placed them onto the table, before he went to the back and brought bigger gourds, till one of the gourds almost reached the size of a chair.
"These are all the durable gourds I have", he stated, as more than 8 were laid in-front of Takeo.
'How am I going to carry all of this', Takeo thought with a bit of struggle.....holding that thought, he asked, "Thank you Uncle....how much are they?".
The uncle smiled in response before he said, "They're on the house son. You can take them for free".
Hearing that, Takeo was a bit surprised, "I couldn't possibly si-", he said, but before he could finish, the old man interrupted him...."Trust me young man....just take them.".
After a moment of silence, Takeo showed a small smile before he thanked the old man, "Thank you. I won't forget your generosity uncle".
"hehehe", he chuckled, "There's no need for that, now quickly take them of my desk".
"Alright", he retorted, before he put all 8 on the floor.
"Hmmm", he said lowly, as he thought of how to carry all these gourds. A couple of minutes of thinking later, he had a good idea.
He placed the second biggest gourd, into the gourd, and stacked the 3rd biggest into the second, before he continued putting the gourds in, before he put the 8th one into the 7th. This way, he could carry all the gourds at once, with having to return again and again.
Right as he was about to leave, he looked at the Old Man, before he waved one last time and walked away.
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The weight of gourds were heavy, but with his training, it was easy for Takeo. 'I should find a place to sleep tonight', he thought, as he couldn't go all the way home, as that'd take several hours.
Not wanting to stay in an inn, he went back to the canal he stayed at as he remembered seeing a cave there.
Just like he thought, there was a small cave. Not wasting any time, he quickly entered it and placed the gourds on the floor.
BANG!
The weight caused the floor to cave in a bit which surprised Takeo, 'Didn't seem that heavy', he deliberated before he unstacked out all the gourds.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The others caused the same noise, but less destructive each time.
Anyways, sitting in an meditative pose, he picked up the smallest gourd, 'So the goal is to break it by using my breath', 'Seems easy enough', he thought.
"Haaa! Huuu!", Inhaling slowly before he also exhaled slowly, Takeo used
"BOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!", he breathed into the gourd, before....
CRACKK!!!!! BANG!!!!
The gourd sounded, as it broke into numerous pieces, surrounding Takeo.
Due to his training which had expanded his lungs, making him able to take in more oxygen, Takeo easily broke the gourd.
"7 More....Let's break them before my 3rd Mission", he stated, before he immediately grabbed the next gourd, training all the way into the night.....
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{A/N} HAPPY 100K EVERYONE, THANK YOU, MEANS A-LOT.🎉🎉🙏
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