"Now go and apologize, or else next time the flowers will be for you!" I watched as Ichigo, the local carrot topped anti-delinquent, made some actual delinquents run away.
I waited for him to finish up with his 'medium' shtick before talking.
"How long does it take for a ghost to pass on, anyways?" I asked, announcing myself beside him. He wasn't startled, much to my dissapointment.
"Dunno," he sighed,"one day they just stop showing up."
"Seems... ominous(?)" For spirits to walk amongst the living, even invisible, was relatively new for me. I was used to the idea that if you weren't sealed away, or had other such measures in place, you would immediately enter the cycle of rebirth.
"I get that... some of them aren't that peaceful before they dissappear. Maybe they go down?" Ichigo offered his thoughts, to which I hummed. There was no way to know. Until you died, at least. "Anyways, why are you here? Isn't your apartment the other side of school?"
"What, and miss you playing spirit medium? No way!" I laughed while we headed to his dad's clinic.
"Oh, you need more supplements." Ichigo sighed. "You shouldn't be taking so much of the stuff, Arashi. It can't be healthy."
"You're not wrong," I admitted, "but I'm careful. Besides, I plan on stopping soon."
"I've heard that before..." Ichigo mumbled.
After we made it to his house/clinic, I paid Mr. Kurosaki for my order and refused his offer of dinner. Yuzu was a great cook, but I needed a specific physical state to attemt to solidify my foundation.
[...]
Back at my apartment, I concocted a carefully curated disgusting mix of herbs, spices, and supplements. The stove was permanently stained with the weight(smell) of my past trials.
Building a foundation was supposed easy, simple, basic. I'd taken that for granted. The whole 'foundation stage' I let myself buy into, was just setting the body up for the later stages of cultivation. Or anything, really.
Foundations for a boxer are speed, agility, and stamina. Strength builds naturally as a boxer... boxes, so it's not necessarily part of the foundation. But it is for a competition weight lifter.
I've had to look at what was different about this world than my previous one, to see what my 'foundations' should lood like. The answer wasn't clear, but I knew it had something to do with how Ichigo could see spirits. That's why I befriended him to begin with.
For starters, the energy in the air is different. It has less physical presence, and can't be easily absorbed. Unfortunately, that also means I can't rely on it to purge my body, even if I could build up pressure with it, eventually.
Next, and most frustrating, were the differences in the human body. While there are signs of being able to handle a sort of energy flow and pressure, I couldn't find any verifiable techniques to work with.
So, the first step in my 'foundation building' amounted to making my body the healthiest I could make it. Which, honeslty, was the same as my old world. Thus, the pot of death. I couldn't use energy to purge myself of impurities. There are no supernatural plants to supplement the process. I'll just had to buckle up and do what I could.
One thing that thankfully seemed to follow me across realities, was my body control. I could force some of the impurites out through my pores, but damn if it didn't hurt like a bitch. The 'pot of death' is supposed to dull some pain, supplement blood loss, tense my muscles, and keep me alive when I pass out from the pain. It seemed to work thus far...
After staring at the 'medicine' for a few minutes, I drank the whole pot. I ignored the burning sensations and focused on the purge. It was my 50th session, but it wasn't any easier for it.
[...]
I woke up around mid-day following my session. I'd obviously missed my morning classes, which I'd expected, so I decided to skip.
Looking myself over, there was the all too familiar tar-like excretions from my arms, chest, and thighs. There was also blood, which was new.
"Fucking finally!" I was elated, because my body was in it's theoretical peak health. Now, I just had to do small sessions evertime I pooped. Also, it meant I could proceed to foundation building part 2, electric boogaloo. Or, killing myself through training.
I spent the rest of the day training every muscle and movement I could think of, then devouring all the food in my fridge. A purged body was an efficient one, after all.
I was honestly at a loss at what cultivation could look like in this reality. Hell, even in my old life I was just a swordsman, if a really good one, so I didn't know too much about how cultivation worked. I followed the path layed by others. That wasn't possible now.
All I could do, was try everything. Step 1, efficiently train my body to it's peak. Step 2... recklessly absorb as much of the ambient energy as I can? Something was bound to happen, right? But, that came later. I wasn't even done with step one. Who knew how long it would take to reach my body's theoretical peak strength. It could take decades.
[...]
About a week. Four days actually. It took about four days for my... everything, to stop rapidly progressing. I was still improving, but not by much and I could feel that it was am exponential drop. I'm even sure it only took that long because I still went to school. That was severely disappointing...
Why? Because even though I got stronger, it wasn't to an unreasonable degree. I could maybe lift one end of a small car, for example. I might be able to sprint at 29mph, for a little bit. I couldn't jump to the top of a roof, but I could easily clamber up. I was only peak human, maybe.
"What's got you so down?" Ichigo asked as he sat down in his seat.
"Nothing much, just one of those days." I sighed, looking the at the new girl for what must have been the first time since she joined a few days prior. She was cute enough, but I didn't see what caught so much of Ichigo's attention.
I'd noticed that he was spending more and more time with her, but I was too immersed in training to pay much attention to it.
"So, what's with you and the new girl?" I asked lowly. Ichigo hesitated for a moment before the girl herself answered.
"He's been showing me around town, that's all." Rukia's smile was both to sweet and fake. I hummed in acknowledgement before looking to the window, noticing Orihime's tightened expression. It was none of my business, but I was rooting for Orihime.
Technically, Tatsuki had the 'childhood friend' angle, but Orhime was more... visually appealing. She was a nice girl too, despite her taste in food. Rukia seemed... off. In a way I couldn't describe, but Ichigo could make his own choices.
I watched a cloud form in the distance, which made me think about my next step in cultivation. I couldn't find a common thread online about how energy was supposed to work or be used.
'I don't know how this worlds energy is supposed to be used... but, there's no telling what corner of the globe that information is hiding in either. I'll start absorbing this worlds energy tonight, and deal with the consequences.' I resolved to move forward, fixing my attention to the teacher for the lesson.