Hachi had stopped late in the evening to confront the figure which had been following him for days now “what are you? Some creature that can project themselves to me? A spirit from hell? Or are you a mark that I’ve finally gone insane?” the daemon asked his specter guest bluntly, and got a blunt answer in return.
“It doesn’t matter kid, I’m here and I can help, either accept the help or be driven insane by me mocking you day by day, your choice” the specter shrugged and chuckled, watching what the daemon would do or say in response.
Hachi said nothing for a time, wondering a number of things about his unwanted visitor. The origins of the specter were still unknown and his intentions even more so. The daemon was put in a position he hated to be, forced to trust someone he knew nothing about and had the obvious advantage in the deal. Slowly Hachi nodded “alright figure…I’ll listen and learn but at least show a bit of respect towards me and my home by revealing your appearance.”

The figure Nodded and seemed to pull the haze off from around him, the tendrils of dark mist that hung around the gaunt form was now nonexistent and showed the specter for what he really was, an emaciated creature with a lizard like tail, a bone mask across its face, a hole through the chest, and stood even feet tall. This new look suited the figure well, even when it talked it changed slightly “you, my pathetic incarnation, will become strong with me by your side” the figure laughed “Hachi, you need to call me something besides ‘specter’ and ‘figure’ all the time….call me Kryeed”

The name shocked Hachi, the daemon Kryeed was known very well by the various tribes Hachi grew up around, he had been known for his growth and skill as a daemon to the point that others in the universe began to notice and recruit him. Now the daemon Kryeed seemed to stand before him and tell him that he was the incarnation of that same daemon from the past.

Hachi couldn’t believe that he was the reincarnation of Kryeed, for the simple reason was everyone believed Kryeed was some myth or that his story was hyped up too much, so the only other explanation was that he was going insane, neither seemed good. “what ever you say…Kryeed” Hachi had trouble saying the name, because he truly didn’t believe the man before him was the one who bore the title “what do you have to show me first?”

Kryeed smiled down to Hachi and pointed to the other side of the room “go” the spirit
directed “you don’t believe me, and that’s fine…I’ll show you I’m who I say I am, and that you are me” the words struck the daemon like a spike, the spirit knew he didn’t believe, meaning either he was a part of him, or that the Kryeed before him was a figment of his already shaky mind.

Once Hachi had taken his position, Kryeed moved, the spirit closed the gap within the blink of an eye and sent his heel into the daemon’s chest, causing him to fly back and through one of the heavy castle turrets without much resistance and leaving the poor daemon in the thick of the Icer blizzard. Hachi got up slowly, coughing and spitting out blood as he pressed against the area of impact, feeling the broken bones; Kryeed was real…at least to him.

“well, did I beat all the disbelief out of you or do I need to rough you up some more” Kryeed spoke, behind Hachi, arms crossed with his piercing golden eyes watching him through a mask. The daemon could do little than to stagger to his feet and raise a hand in defeat “alright, alright….i get that you’re who you say you are” rubbing his chest lightly “was kicking me into this deadly blizzard really the best way to demonstrate your power though?” he asked while collecting himself again.
Kryeed laughed “for me it was, so just shut up and do a few training exercises for now. First off we need to get rid of that damned emotional block you got going on…you need to FEEL those emotions to help guide you in battle, none of this over logical crap” the spirit mocked and pushed Hachi further into the white abyss.
What could Hachi do besides follow blindly what this spirit said until he had the power to get rid of it. The plan was not short term, but it seemed like the only way; Hachi needed to gain power, energy, physical, mental, senses, he needed to surpass the ‘shadow’ he lived in to survive and grow. Kryeed oversaw Hachi’s training, pointing ever minor flaw in his stance before explaining the basics of the fighting he was learning was a martial art Kryeed himself used when he fought, and that he was the only known user; a sign of Hachi’s lineage.

Hachi was both cursed and blessed by this point, the blessing be his apparent affinity towards the growth and control of power, the downside however was quite easily the fresh new hell Kryeed was inflicting. The spirit never shut up, never encouraged, never slept, never grew tired, and expected the latter two of Hachi as well. The grueling tasks the spirit Kryeed had inflicted on Hachi were from his own training regimen.
The basic art of practicing the kicks and the combination of attacks until it not only became second nature, but to the point where he really didn’t have to think about what to do so much as let his body react by its primal and powerful instinct. The harsh training in the blizzard, the long training in the pitch black, even the lack of food was becoming a battle to keep himself strong, things truly capable of bringing the strongest warriors to their knees over time.

The daemon spirit of Kryeed constantly told him about different ins and outs about the opponents he would no doubt face on his search for perfection. The daemon spirit seemed to be growing less and less emaciated every hour that Hachi was training, as if the pain and the growth was not only effecting the daemon, but also feeding the long dormant daemon Kryeed. “Now kid! You need to know” the spirit leaned forward “I own you…your body shall be a vessel for my soul and I’ll be back in the living world with such a fierce presence that the worlds will tremble once more by my power….but you need to be strong…as strong as I was when I was banished to this reincarnated prison of an existence…so train kid, or I’ll kill you” the idea of such an act seemed stupid, for Kryeed needed Hachi to return, but he added a rather blood chilling reason “I can wait however long till another body is given….and train that one”

The words seemed to strike fear into Hachi, even though he really didn’t feel emotions normally, the specter looming over him had somehow let emotions slip through, things that Hachi had never really felt before, and something he needed to get use to and label. Anger and bloodlust were the two emotions Hachi was allowed to feel, it was an intoxicating poison that Kryeed told him he could harness for greater power than he currently could as ‘an apathetic wuss’ that he needed to get used to the feelings of anger and of bloodlust so he could see through its powerful haze effect on judgment.
The idea too, of the emotions being a source of power seemed stupid to Hachi, but what could he truly say to contradict the idea, clearly the method worked for Kryeed, and his name was not lost to the annals of time like many brave and logical warriors were. The training sessions grew longer and longer, and every time they ended he was forced to spend hours in the sauna to let his body purify its weaknesses and to let his muscles adjust to the harsh training the spirit kept forcing on them. Every day Hachi was forced to feel the stinging cold, the physical tearing of his muscles, and on more than one time his very shoulder blades had pierced his skin with the effort of pushing back and fighting the daemon spirit Kryeed. Even with the almost constant presence of pain and soreness, Hachi could not dismiss the amount of power he had gained while training, the daemon spirit truly knew the way to unlock the daemon body and the power within it, though almost any other trainer could call the methods barbaric and savage.

Training equipment was almost useless to Kryeed, he stated all that was necessary was a sauna, weights, and when the money presented itself, a gravity room. Everything else that was used could have been found in nature; large ice blocks, the weather around, even Kryeed presented himself as a method of training then the time deemed proper. Training was not just a physical thing, as stated by Kryeed himself multiple times, but rather he was to endure the emotional attacks and the mental attacks of taunts in order to truly become strong, to truly rise above the pile of dead enemies he would soon create.

The worst part of the training for Hachi was the fact that Kryeed expected the young daemon to be as strong or nearly as strong as he was when he was alive, meaning thousands of times stronger than he currently was, which presented itself clearly during one very harsh training session. “Faster you weak excuse for a demon!” Kryeed bellowed as Hachi pushed a glacier sized chunk of ice against the roaring winds of the blizzard, having already fallen nearly half a dozen times from the numbness of his body, thinking he might actually die from the exposure.

“I….I cannot Kryeed…” Hachi spat out with some anger, it shamed him to admit such a thing, but what came after was far worse than just pushing a block of ice around a snow storm. “What did you just say kid?” Kryeed said in a low voice and lowered his head to Hachi to make sure he heard him this time “Did you just tell me you could not?” the rage boiling clearly in the tone of his voice “you are an extension of me, and I know that something like this would be child’s play! Now get up and push that ice block…unless, you feel ready to die in this winter hellhole” the spirit said with such a harsh tone the very planet seemed to shake under Hachi’s feet. There was a moment of irrational anger which filled Hachi, something told him he was not to be put down in such a way, by himself or Kryeed, that he could move any force in nature to do his will as long as he remained strong and would refuse to accept his own perceived limits.

Slowly, step by step, Hachi pushed the ice block forward, inch by inch he growled and grunted to move the block of ice, mumbling he would not give in, not to nature, not to Kryeed. The sound of the ground cracking under his footsteps from the heavy stomping it took to move, Kryeed laughed “That’s the spirit kid! Harder, faster, stronger! Don’t give in! you can rest when you’re dead kid!” the daemon spirit called, following Hachi like a normal trainer would, watching for any signs of weaknesses to comment on. The total requirement was a number of miles, an unknown amount to Hachi as Kryeed picked the spot and explained the block needed to be pushed from the starting location to his ice based palace.

When the grueling task was finally finished, Hachi was allowed to rest and allowed to talk with the spirit about the forms of training and about the way Kryeed had lived his life in detail, as such things were lost to the sands of times many generations before Hachi’s parents had ever been born. The two talked in the sauna, leaving them both to talk in the hazy mist. “Alright, you wanna know what life was like for me? It was both hell and fun…I was on namek once” Hachi interrupted asking what exactly namek was and what kind of creatures lived there, only to be told to shut the hell up by Kryeed “anyway, the place was alright, green string bean like people…one decided to get in a fight with me...poor bastard was killed within the first few moves” the daemon spirit tapped his chin “there were a number of other places which I visited…Icer was one of them too. There was a woman…Mara” the daemon seemed to smile for a moment but shrugged it off “she was a good one, point is that’s why you’re here today, I trained hard and I trained long. I fought my share of opponents and I’ve killed my share of people too, point behind this all is you cannot die, you cannot quit, and you must grow to an upstanding warrior”

“But why then Kryeed? Why would I need to grow strong if you’re just going to take over for me perminantly, where’s the motivation in that” Hachi asked rather bluntly, and got a blunt answer “well, you are me to a point, you will not be replaced, your memories will be unlocked, you are Kryeed, in a sense…but that’s a long long way off kid, you better just hope you net some form of transformation soon or else the other warriors are going to destroy you.” Kryeed explained with a laugh and got up “now back to training punk, we don’t want you wasting any time”

The Days continued, slowly and painfully, but it showed serious progress for Kryeed and Hachi, both were looking healthier and stronger than before, the amount of energy pent up inside the daemon body was starting to become respectable to others on the planet, though he was still below what the weaker ones would be considered. The increase in power meant he could get away with more, rather than having to take slow and careful precautions, he would be able to soon overpower some of them bare handed. The daemon spirit constantly explained, Hachi was to be something feared in the future, someone who could be given a title of the strongest, something Kryeed was lacking, at least on a galactic standpoint, wanting to give Hachi his chance before anyone else could claim such a title.

Sword training, club training, ranged training, all of it was something Hachi needed to be well trained for, trained as well if not better than Kryeed himself was while he was alive. For every strike, Hachi was shown a counter measure, and for every block, there were ways around it in ways the daemon could scarcely imagine, almost as if his logical mind helped cage him to his weak form. The daemon was slowly seeing that manipulation was for the weak, that the truly strong had to climb to power on the backs of dead comrades, not living ones, Kryeeds joke added ‘because the live ones can move out from under you, dead ones cant’

With every hour that Hachi trained with a weapon, almost as if re-learning a long acquired skill, he became in tune with the bone weapons he could use as if they were an extension of him and not a weapon in and of itself. Though no matter how well Hachi had adapted, it seemed Kryeed was always a dozen steps ahead of the learning daemon. After each training session of a weapon, the daemon Hachi always came out worse for wear, lashes across his back, deep gashes across his chest, or a dozen bone needles across his body, and forcing him to retire to the sauna as he healed up and once again had a talk with the spirit which constantly trained and tormented him.

“Kid, you’re getting a little faster and a little stronger every day, you should be proud but you shouldn’t let that simple fact let you slack off from your training…you may think your hot shit right now, but remember those police officers when you did that stupid heist? They could have snapped you in half, so make sure you don’t let the little power you’ve got go straight to your head...or else you may lose it from your shoulders.” The spirit ended with a horribly mocking laugh and a slap across Hachi’s back. Though things were getting annoying for the daemon, he found nuggets of valuable teachings hidden under the mockery and the profanity of the spirit, he now felt with the spirit guide like Kryeed beside him, there would be many more things he could do, much stronger trainings he could endure, maybe even rule a planet off the hellish white wastelands of icer.
The low and cold hate Hachi felt for the cold would only multiply as the time came when Kryeed demanded he find a very remote portion of the tundra, burry himself in snow and claw himself out and back to the palace. The idea seemed simple, but the way Kryeed executed it made Hachi wonder and almost worry about the situation. The daemon was pushed and prodded after losing his orientation into the wasteland, the blizzard immediately making his skin crawl as he staggered out, unsure of any direction, and when it was time to be buried, Kryeed made the daemon sit in a mediation style position and then a large mountain of snow was cascaded onto him, a snow white tomb.
The tomb started as a snowflake, as all sheets of snow do, but compounding by the dozens, by the hundreds, thousands, and on to the millions and billions, their weight added up to something Hachi could not get out of by natural means, and it seemed forbidden by Kryeed to use the ice based energy or any energy at all to escape the tomb, leaving the daemon in a very bad position.

Cold. Numbing cold. There was little Hachi could feel within the hour of being entombed in the snow, not a training but a death wish apparently. There was little Hachi could do in the position he was in, aside from dying and giving up, but the feint voice of Kryeed rang true in his mind, telling him to fight, to never accept death in any form. Slowly, with all the strength and more Hachi could muster, he began to stir under the snow and ice, began to fight for his life against nature and against the cold numbness he felt. The daemon inched forward up towards life and the surface, slowly moving through sheer will alone when his body started to quit on him, the example of what Kryeed wanted for him.
The first to emerge was his hand, tinted blue from the chill from his icy tomb, then his other hand as he began to pull himself up and out of the deep snow bank, every inch of his skin having a blue hue and a cold effect to it, on the verge of death, showing signs of a true survivor. Kryeed stood beside the shivering and half dead Hachi, clapping “well now, you didn’t do half bad there kid, next time maybe you can climb out faster, it’s boring just watching a white mound for activity ya know” the spirit mocked as he always did, but offered genuine congratulations with it, a step above what usually happened.
His task was only half over however, the second half was to actually make it alive back to his palace, back home. The major problem with his survival now was not knowing which direction exactly his home was in, it was hard enough to find the first time, but Kryeed assured the daemon if he followed directions he would be home safely in his sauna by days end.

Slowly, with Kryeeds direction, Hachi traversed the white wasteland, jumping over the crevasses and avoiding the deep icy sinkholes which speckled the land around his palace. The palace was in sight when Kryeed spoke up again “you know kid, you better be ready for some very strong opposition, I don’t care what the fuck you do as long as you stay alive” the spirit noted with his ever mocking tone “you’ll be strong eventually, if you stay alive at least” the daemon spirit chided and walked through to the entrance of Hachi’s home, waiting for him to meet in the sauna and reflect on what the training was to do.

Slowly, painfully, Hachi made his way to the sauna, feeling excruciating pain from his body going from the excessive cold to the excessive heat, as if his skin was being burnt off of him slowly. Kryeed just watched, seemingly amused as Hachi adjusted painfully into the sauna “awww, too fragile for the change?” he mocked and leaned back in the sauna. The daemon for the most part ignored the spirit as he soaked and let his body relax, to warm up and to heal. “whats the matter, lips frozen together?” Kryeed mocked and smiled “you need to get thicker skin, cuz you’ll be dealing with things a thousand times worse than this…also, talk more, it’ll help you”

Hachi almost growled “what should I talk for, you nearly killed my by a snow bank, then made me walk half way across Icer to get back home! What was the point of that you insane specter!” the daemon got up and looked at the spirit squarely, waiting for an answer. Kryeed just looked back with a grin under his mask “yeah yeah, tell ya what. If I explain myself to you, you do all the training I expect of you without any more outbursts, you got it kid?”

Hachi only nodded and let Kryeed explain his reasoning’s while he sat back down, curious of what the spirit truly expected of the whole ordeal. Kryeed explained slowly, as if the daemon before him were stupid “you see, you claim to have will, you claim to refuse death, you just proved you weren’t talking out your ass like so many others do” with that Hachi grumbled and folded his arms in front of him, thinking such a reason was stupid and risky, something that should have never taken place. The daemon spirit Kryeed just laughed it off and waited for Hachi to be done stewing in the sauna and begin training once more.

Hachi was forced to have his hands tied in front of him, only a half foot of slack hanging between his wrists meant that most forms of punching were impossible now, and he had to rely completely on kicking based attacks. The spirit Kryeed came forward, acting as direct opposition to Hachi, hands bound in much the same way save for his wrists physically touching, leaving him in theory with a worse disadvantage than Hachi had. The two fought long until the end of the day, the daemon finding quickly that Kryeed had no disadvantage at all with his hands bound, but rather it served only to shame Hachi and keep him in check, he was sure.

When everything was said and done, and the two retired to the sauna, talking about the match they had and talking about how Hachi could improve on his fighting stance and reaction time, as well as adapting to the use of only his legs while training. Hachi grumbled and growled, dealing with the newfound emotions and dealing with the insane spirit trying to get him to do inhuman, impossible, and self-destructive training but with all his complaining and his dislike for both the training and the spirit, he could not argue results, and the training was yielding amazing results. “So Kryeed, you never did tell me what I’m going to be up against…care to tell me, or are you just going to mock me and let it pass without any kind of answer” the daemon sounded irritated but was well in control of his new emotions.

Kryeed laughed, wondering quite how to phrase his words for Hachi to both understand and to feel a need to train. “alright I suppose you should know…you know those guys who always like to stand up for ‘right’ things and stop the bad guys, well you’re going to find that they get really strong really quick, so you need to man up if you want to do anything on your list of goals, the first of which is to be strong enough for the gravity chamber, then train until you can change your form to something…stronger” Kryeed explained quite vaguely and bluntly, but Hachi couldn’t argue with the rather simple logic, he did find the people who felt like they should push their morals onto someone else rather annoying. “Alright Kryeed, I see why I need to train... just make sure you don’t kill me in the process, I’m no good to either of us dead”

Through the long talk, Kryeed helped show a less demented side to him and helped Hachi get more comfortable with the deadly training and grueling training hours, along with his true nature, and once things got easier to accept, Kryeed would be able to help Hachi grow into power much more quickly than if he took his own methods or if he were completely unwilling to believe the situation he was in. Soon Hachi would be able to overpower a number on the planet, and with all hopes be capable of walking away from the planet and settle someplace that offered more fertile ground to train on.

OOC: 4,409 words, X1.2 for demonic ground, X1.25 for sauna and X1.5 for weights