>>5522156After the second meal of the day, Takigi exercises further, returning when the sun is close to setting. For a short time afterwards he resumes working, but before long everyone turns in for the night. Near the end of the day cycle the he and Nui wake, refuel the fire, and take care of household chores or continue working for around two hours. Kinzou usually remains asleep. This can be considered the closest to leisure time that Kinzou gets on a normal day.
The first snow. New Years. The first sowing. The Sun Festival. The first harvest. The first snow. New Years.
It is roughly fourteen months between the time Takigi first begins training and when he manages to pass through The Martial Gate. On that day in particular he had remarked about feeling restless, and forgoed his winter work to continue exercising throughout the day. Despite the low temperatures he ran, and ran, and ran. He said he felt warm - burning hot, actually. Worriedly, you confirmed that this was not a symptom of low body temperature. To your surprise it wasn't; he was running a fever.
Eventually, he simply fell down in the middle of running. A moment later he started screaming. Pain several times greater than when absorbing spiritual energy could be felt through your mental link. Pain like needles was not only piercing the flesh of the hand he normally absorbed energy through, but nearly his entire body, albeit milder in intensity at any one spot. This pain continued for several minutes, until his body began to excrete a black sludge. Impurities, according to the humans. You are curious as to the chemical composition yourself.
It is only a short couple of weeks between Takigi's breakthrough and the resumption of his woodcutting labor.
「Good to see you boss. How has the new year been?」The now greying boss of the woodcutting laborers, Ki Jin, responds with a laugh. "Another year in paradise." 「Glad to hear it. Hey, I, uh, would like to transfer to the heavy cutting team.」 Ki Jin raises an eyebrow. "You passed through the gateway? Despite your persistence, can't say I expected it." You can detect a whispered remark. "Guess a midlife crisis can be a good thing..." He coughs for a moment and after seeing that he hasn't been corrected, continues on. "As long as you can control your strength by now, you can transfer whenever you want. You probably already recognize it, but keep an eye out for this character - this marks the heavy cutting team's trees."
The man draws out a character in the snow with a stick: 大. "Other stuff is all the same, just make sure to grab one of the heavy axes. Oh, and be careful on what direction you let the fuckers fall. Y'don't have anyone to spot you if a tree falls the wrong way, and they sure ain't small so... well, you get it."
