Chapter 82: Train Properly, Game Properly, Eat Properly, Sleep Properly
Ross officially joined the Spirit Wave Style. He became Genkai's senior disciple, one step ahead of Yusuke.
And then he understood first-hand exactly why Spirit Wave Style training required a strong physical foundation.
Simply put: the Spirit Wave Style's effect on the body through Nen operates at the cellular level. Nen is used to nourish every cell in the body, bringing each to its optimal state of activity. The body becomes tougher while its capacity to hold Nen expands.
The analogy may or may not be a good one, but the Spirit Wave Style's cellular reinforcement was like a stretching process: using external force to gradually expand each cell's internal volume, letting the body adapt, then continuing to expand until the limit was reached.
This kind of cellular-level forced expansion inevitably produced a faint discomfort that would be barely noticeable under normal circumstances. Multiplied across thirty-six trillion cells, however, even the most microscopic pain was more than enough to break a practitioner apart.
So the Spirit Wave Style's foundational early-stage training came down to two things: body tempering and pain endurance.
Build the cells to the point where they can hold more Nen. Build the self to endure more pain.
A school whose entire identity is suffering, and proudly so.
Ross went through every training method Yusuke had experienced in the original story, without exception. Balancing on one finger with Nen concentrated at the needle point for twelve hours. Absorbing Genkai's Spirit Wave impacts directly with his body. Sitting in meditation surrounded by open flames.
Compared to these, the Hunter Exam was a casual afternoon outing.
Ross's pain tolerance was not, objectively speaking, particularly high. What kept him going was a bone-deep version of "well, I'm already here," along with a genuine longing for the actual Spirit Wave Style techniques that even Yusuke in the original story never fully mastered.
By the third consecutive day of training, he couldn't hold on anymore. The pain exceeded his threshold. The kind that leaves you unable to stand.
He wasn't planning to quit, though. He had come prepared. Time to officially become a Vitality Surge Z-powered combat practitioner.
"Master... I have a special recovery ability. Using something like this shouldn't interfere with the training, should it?"
Training finished, aching everywhere, Ross grabbed onto the hem of Genkai's clothes.
Genkai assumed at the time that Ross had developed some kind of passive accelerated recovery based in Enhancement, so she nodded and told him to go ahead.
The next second, she watched Ross toss a spinning disk into the air. When the needle landed, her vision shifted, and she found herself in an unfamiliar space.
"...A spatial transfer? No. More like being pulled into a rules-based Domain."
After a brief physical adjustment, Genkai immediately began assessing the surrounding environment. She also noticed that her disciple was crawling on all fours toward what appeared to be a pharmacy. Ten seconds later, Ross was back on his feet.
Genkai went over without hesitation, grabbed Ross's wrist, and tried to channel Nen into him to check his physical condition.
She had the wrist. The Nen wouldn't go in.
"Master, this area prohibits any action that could cause harm to an opponent."
Ross knew she was trying to read his condition, so he explained directly.
As expected, for the foreseeable future he would be taking Vitality Surge Z every single day just to offset the training debuff.
Four minutes later, both were back. Genkai grabbed his wrist again.
What she found was extraordinary. Every internal and external injury Ross had accumulated over three days of training had vanished as though it had never existed.
And not just that. The cells that her Spirit Wave impacts had forcibly pushed into a slight temporary reinforced expansion, which should have reverted to their previous state as the body's natural recovery kicked in, had somehow locked in at the expanded state instead.
"Hm."
Genkai, who considered herself quite experienced, entered full brainstorming mode.
The Spirit Wave Style could do something in this general direction. In the original story, when Kuwabara's bones were completely crushed by Rando, Genkai's bone-setting treatment had involved stimulating and forcibly reinforcing the muscles and skeletal structure of the affected areas, pushing the body's natural recovery capacity to accelerate healing significantly.
Kuwabara's own physical constitution wasn't weak, and in a "break and rebuild" sense he had retained some portion of the reinforcement, ultimately resulting in a full recovery plus enhanced arm strength.
That method wasn't without side effects, though. It was hard on the body and required paying a certain price.
Genkai's seemingly brutal training was actually calibrated. Every session left damage but never at a level that threatened the foundation. Even when she pushed harder it stayed within what she could heal.
And Spirit Wave Style training was a process that required enormous accumulated time. Methods like forced break-and-rebuild, viewed over the long term, were purely negative: they artificially lowered the cells' tolerance threshold, which was counterproductive overall.
What Ross had just demonstrated, though, was a healing capacity that had no regard for the normal limits of Nen ability.
Genkai wouldn't pry into a disciple's ability sources, restrictions, and vows, matters too personal to probe. But that didn't stop her from using what she had observed to adjust Ross's training regimen.
As a result, training items like sitting in the fire pit and sleeping on a bed of needles were cut entirely. Ross's daily training condensed into essentially one thing:
Taking hits. Relentlessly, in actual combat.
Real fights and Spirit Wave impacts to hammer the body repeatedly, followed by complete recovery and state consolidation via Vitality Surge Z at the end of each day, exhausted and covered in fresh damage.
A training method like a streamlined Saiyan severe-injury-plus-Senzu-Bean cycle: Ross's physical toughness and underlying Nen capacity grew at a visible, steady pace.
Then Genkai quickly realized that Ross had other priorities in life. Or rather, this kid had never hidden his priorities from day one.
Electronic games.
Ross was genuinely willing to train in the Spirit Wave Style and put real effort into it. But to give up his daily gaming time for it entirely? Not a chance.
"My body is made of video games!"
Ross said something incomprehensible in his usual way, but Genkai knew he was completely serious.
The kind of person who becomes a Nen user, at the end of it, is someone with an obsession in some specific area that goes beyond normal imagination, something they can bind their entire life to. Those who look like ordinary people most of the time are simply operating in areas that haven't touched their sensitive territory yet.
Ross's obsession required no explanation. Electronic games. Every one of his abilities had been built around them. And so, under this reality, Genkai was pushed to teach to the student in front of her rather than to some ideal student she'd imagined.
Under Ross's personal interference, what had been training brutal enough to make Yusuke think of hell, where even breathing freely was a luxury, gradually evolved into a mode Genkai had never imagined for her school:
Train properly, game properly, eat properly, sleep properly.