Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 4: Hard Work

(Artwork is done by AI. It's the younger twin Cynthia of The Twin Ifirits.)

April 4th, 2017: Shimura and Himiko invited Azura,
Ventus,
Familiars,
and I to join them in gym work outs. Brutal was an understament to this hellish workout!
Five minute intervals start with bench press machines and two people on standby to adjust the weights accordingly.
Two 45 pounds,
a spotter to prevent myself from dropping the weights and possibly decapitating myself.
The workout was light,
but I could feel my muscles getting that workout.
Next workout,
ring pull-ups where you have to support your own weight and lift yourself!

Ah,
I could feel my biceps and triceps screaming in pain with each pull-up and the cold pull of gravity!
"BREATHE, EVERYONE! BREATHE! YOU'RE GOING TO GAS YOURSELF OUT TOO QUICKLY!"
Himiko smacks the ring pull-up side bar with her kendo sword,
causing me to flinch and my breathing to release and hasten a bit!
"Come on, let's go."
Shimura says in broken English and gives some pointers like stop kicking my legs like I'm running up steps and helps me break that habit for the duration of the time.
A mix of tying my legs together and a kendo smack to leg!
The next workout was lifting a 50-pound weight in the form of a ball with handel and start lifting it,
which Shimura went around amplifying gravity with his magic,
actually giving the twins Chase and Sora a workout!

Seth, Ventus,
Azura, Zoey,
and Yuzuhara are sweating just as bad as me,
if not more,
because Himiko and Shimura gave them the same workout routine as me but with bigger weights and higher gravity.
I lifted with both hands,
and then they had me lift with one hand at a time.
Moving onto a more brutal workout, Shimura gave us a demonstration of jumping on square hardwood boxes, then leaping off,
effectively working out our stomachs! Finally,
we had rope climbing,
where all the sweating and exercises caught up to you and made it nigh impossible to climb!

"DON'T GIVE UP! NEVER! GIVE! UP! DON'T BACKDOWN FROM THE CHALLENGE! RISE TO THE OCASION! PUSH YOURSELF TO YOUR LIMITS AND EXCEED THEM!"
Himiko yells as everyone,
but the twins kept slipping and reclimbing.
Ventus and I were the 1st to the top of the cieling,
tap the beam,
and then flop hard on the mats as everyone followed shortly after, minus the whole hitting the ground but actually land.
"Ah, don't get too comfortable. This was just warm-ups to the actual exercise." Himiko says as she helps Ventus and I to our feet.

After all that exercising,
she relocated us out of the gym room, which looked like a log cabin on the inside and into a more spacious room.
I think this was the same room I saw on Christmas last year.
Anyway,
she paired us up into one one one rounds against Kenneth and his platoon. Even Selena was on their team,
so we were bound to have our asses kicked.

3 minute bouts,
and only Yuzuhara won out of all of us! Shimura and Himiko vote on who wins based on the number of strikes delivered and knockdowns.
Zoey, Ventus, Azura, Seth,
and I lost from inexperience mainly,
but Seth,
though?

Selena sent that man flying three times from the sheer brute force of her bokken swing,
and Seth was just having too much fun sword fighting that he didn't really care if he lost,
just as long as he had fun.
After all that,
we were told to be in at 9 am tomorrow, no breakfast,
then we dismissed.

7:30 a.m., the next day:
Lydia forced me to wake up by a prank, and you'd think I'd be mad,
right?
Nope, this is just her norm.
Cynthia and Lydia bonded with the twins and the Pope over pranks of all things,
and now they got a mini prank war going on.
Anyway, so I'm up,
my neighbors are up,
we all have coffee,
and we showed up at eight to have an hour to ourselves and just chat or something.

Well,
we ended up chatting in the sparring room from yesterday,
and though I wasn't paying attention, some words were said that drew me in. "Hey Chase, Sora, have y'all been signed up for this Half Breed Project?"
Seth asks.
"No, why?" The twins responded.
"I apparently got signed up for it, and now the Exorcist are forcing me to get Azura pregnant."
Natrally,
I freaked out because being forced isn't cool,
and two,
it's Azura and Seth.
The two despise each other with a passion.