Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Chi manipulation was a notoriously hard skill to master, and even the Iron Fist, who could be considered to have the most accomplishments in the area, at least of those Mason could remember, cheated as they used a ritual to steal the lifeforce of a dragon, flooding their own body with so much Chi that it became easy to draw on some of it.

Mason theorized that this difficulty in drawing Chi from their body stemmed from the condition that plagued all of humanity: weak souls.

Much like the body had a special energy unique to it in the form of Chi, the soul also had a special energy, which Mason promptly called his Spiritual Sense. And much like Chi strengthened with physical strength, Spiritual Sense evolved with one’s soul.

Now, after a full night of training, although Mason was tired, he felt no urge to sleep, his soul having long been accustomed to never doing so, so he entered meditation instead. Back when he was trapped in this body, it was easy to focus on his soul during the night, with little to no distractions, but it became much harder during the day, due to the sheer amount of stimuli. That was how Mason mastered meditation.

Now in a body, Mason used his Spiritual Sense to manipulate his Chi, performing a deed which would be deemed impossible by any martial artist as he easily circulated it through his body, healing the micro-tears that had been formed from his training.

Chi, though limited, was a powerful force. Mason had managed to push himself so far not only thanks to will, but also thanks to the circulation of his Chi throughout his training, maintaining himself right over the edge of his body. It was harder to manipulate Chi when he was not meditating, but it was not impossible.

Now that he was finished with his training and actively meditating, though, Mason was able to direct the entirety of his Chi as he flooded the different parts of his body, forcing it to heal.

Because of the Iron Fist, Chi was known to mostly be a force of destruction in this universe, but while it certainly was capable of great destruction, it was more importantly a force of life.

In any case, this presented Mason the opportunity he was looking for. Although he didn’t know whether he would be able to achieve immortality, it was the best thing he had for now, so he intended to learn martial arts not only to learn how to better fight, but also because it was always through martial arts that Chi was evolved, be it in this world or others.

But for now, what Mason needed most was a shower, so doing his best to not make too much sound, he tiptoed to the bathroom and took his shower.

With both the active circulation of his Chi and his soul influencing his body, Mason could feel his body recovering at lightning speed under the shower. He realized he might have underestimated the speed at which his body would grow, although the closer his body got to his soul, the slower the changes would be; but since he was still some distance away from it, he should still have around a month of rapid progress in front of him.

Ten minutes later, Mason stepped out of the shower, clean and changed, but as he did, he noticed his older sister Elena leaning against the wall, a teasing smile on her face.

”You sure took your sweet time in there.”

The old Mason would have blushed at the innuendo, but he was a changed man. Mason winked at his sister, replying, ”I’m only an amateur compared to you, sis. Same goes for sneaking out.” When Old Mason had sneaked out to off himself the night before, he had noticed that she had sneaked out too.

Elena looked gobsmacked at the response before she playfully hit him on the shoulder and threatened jokingly, ”Since when did you learn to talk back? Grew some balls overnight?”

Mason rolled his eyes and replied, ”As riveting as talking about my private parts would be, I would very much rather not speak of them with you. Now, if you don’t mind, I have something to do.”

Elena looked surprised as her brother rarely left the house on his own accord, and so she asked curiously, ”You do?”

Mason nodded, walking past her as he revealed, ”I’m going to run.”

Elena’s surprise was only heightened by his statement, ”Seriously?”

”Seriously.”

Although still visibly shocked, Elena’s expression quickly turned jovial as she smiled and asked, ”Alright, I needed a good run as well. Where did you intend to go?”

Mason really did intend to go running, but he also wanted to go check out a few dojos. But he hadn’t yet looked them up, so he didn’t know where he would go. But since she asked him now, he shrugged to show he didn’t know.

Seeing this, she proposed, ”I usually go to Central Park; we could go there. Just give me five minutes to change, and we can go.”

Elena did not let him answer as she rushed to her room, although she did add, ”By the way, Mom and Dad are up; go say hi.”

Mason hummed softly in response, and after grabbing his phone and putting on the best shoes for running, he walked down the stairs to the kitchen. There, his father was sitting down, reading the papers while drinking his morning coffee, while his mother was doing yoga in the backyard. Old Mason had been an outlier in his family, being the only one not physically fit. A waste of good genes.

He greeted them both with a nod; both of them used to this distance drawn between them over the years, before taking a gallon of milk out of the fridge and a few eggs. While gulping down milk, Mason made himself a quick omelet under the bewildered gaze of his father, who eventually asked, ”Since when do you cook? And are you going out?”

Mason shrugged, ”I started working out, and I’m going out to run with Elena. By the way, is Audrey up?”

Despite the clarification, his father, Eric, looked as stunned as before, if not more. Still, he shook his head, replying absentmindedly, ”She’s still sleeping…”

Mason nodded softly, finishing his morning protein quickly, upon which his father, who was exchanging glances with his mother, praised, ”Good for you. Don’t just try to match your sister’s pace or run beyond your limit; the most important thing isn’t to go the fastest or the longest, but to go back the next day.”

Mason nodded silently at the fatherly advice, and Elena arrived just in time.

She had changed into sportswear, that being a pair of light and dark grey leggings, and a similarly colored and patterned tank top. She looked very similar to her mother.

Mason did not feel weird in the slightest admitting she looked sexy. He himself held no sort of desire towards her; she was his sister, but he knew how to appreciate beauty. As far as he was concerned, these were his family.

One of the things that infuriated Mason while trapped in this body was how Old Mason wasted his family’s good genes. Both of his parents looked good and younger than they were despite being in their late forties, and his sisters were bombshells.

As for Mason, he never took care of himself, and in the rare instances he did, his lack of taste made it even worse. This was something else Mason intended to change.

Mason and Elena left the house together, and although she had a car, they decided to take the subway to Central Park. Once again, Elena was surprised by her little brother, as he generally made every trip as short as possible, so he might be back home faster.

As they arrived and started running, however, Elena could not help but feel shocked. She could already feel earlier this morning that something had changed in him; she could not put her finger on what exactly that was, but this impression was only strengthened as they started running.

Elena was an experienced runner, so at first she controlled her pace, making sure not to go too fast. She may like to tease him at times, but Elena was aware of her brother’s self-esteem problems, and knew he didn’t need her discouraging him by outrunning him.

She would hate herself if she crushed her brother’s newborn confidence, especially since she was the one who imposed herself on him.

However, things went pretty differently from what she expected. Mason did not seem to have any trouble keeping up with her, so out of curiosity, she slowly started raising her pace, and much to her shock, her managed to keep up. Moreover, his stamina was something else. Although he looked like he was about to fall at every step, he never did, somehow finding the energy for just another step, one after the other.

The two siblings ended up spending three hours running, taking short rests to recover and admire the park’s beauty. Elena thought it was because he was tired, which was the logical assumption to make since she was getting worked up herself, but it was actually for a whole different reason.

Old Mason was unfortunately a shut-in, which not only resulted in the degradation of his physical body and his social life, but also meant that most of Mason’s time as a powerless soul was in his room. This meant he was almost discovering Central Park for the first time. Not the best example of true nature, but it was good enough. As long as he was outside.

Although Mason still had some energy left in him, he still wanted to check the dojos, and he was getting hungry. After all, while some Chi could be absorbed from the atmosphere, most of it came through food. His muscles also needed protein and calories to heal better.