Note: it’s entirely possible that this may remind you of one or two recent anime stories. While you may very well think that I’ve borrowed heavily from them, I couldn’t possibly comment… 
————————————
Long story short? I got possessed by a vengeful spirit as a result of a dare. Had some crazy adventures. Got a girlfriend and a new bestie, and another girl who liked me. Then we got in over our heads and stuff happened…and now it was just me.
The others didn’t make it. And that sucked. And that yokai that possessed me? It kind of sacrificed itself. But it left a bit of itself behind.
The old lady at the temple managed to separate some of the dark stuff from me, but its spiritual power kind of got stuck to my soul. And that’s…a problem.
One issue was that apparently monsters and demonic spirits are like, EVERYWHERE. And now that I’ve got a bit of that power, I kinda have to use it to stop the bad ones from doing real damage. Most of my evenings are spent doing that…and homework, since I was a student. But the energy…it was a problem.
There was a lot of it, for one thing. For another, it replenished quickly enough that even after burning through my reserves, it was back in a few hours.
“Look, kid, it’s this simple. Your body can’t take the spiritual power you’re infused with. You gotta get physically stronger or that thing will eat away at you until you’re dead. And you ain’t got much time.”
I didn’t want to die. Still don’t. So I took it seriously.
Problem was, I was basically starting from zero. Classic high school senior, scrawny nerd. Hadn’t had a required gym class since 10th grade, I was 5’6 and a measly 120 pounds.
And so I went to the internet and found some starting tips, and spent the next few weeks downing protein shakes, eating for two, and doing endless pushups, crunches, and other calisthenics.
“Better,” Gran said. “ but not enough. You bought some time, but I think you need at least fifty more pounds of muscle before you’re safe.”
“Fifty? I busted my butt for three weeks and added a whole two pounds.”
“Yeah. It’s a problem. You’re gonna need a gym membership and a trainer, and you’re going to need to step it up.”
Well, it was a matter of life and death. So I went to see Coach Gary, at school.
*****
Coach Gary constantly struggled with the annoying fact that his first name was actually Lawrence. Gary was his last name…. So he was Larry Gary, really, but no student was willing to risk calling him that, though I’d once heard another teacher chuckle over it.
Coach Gary was a junior coach, barely 30, exceptionally fit and built like an underwear spokesmodel. He coached for the body building team and the football team. It was off season so he was mostly focused on the body builders at the moment. He was known to be tough, but he was one of the rare coaches who actually had time for kids who weren’t jocks. I'd had him a few years ago and while he was intimidating, he wasn’t unkind. Not like Coach Simmons, who seemed to delight in ensuring weak kids felt their inferiority.
If anyone could help, it was him.
“What’s up, kid? Why did you want to see me?”
“I…I need to get stronger,” I admitted, embarrassed.
“Huh. Well, that’s a fact,” he said, not unkindly. “You could put some meat on those bones if you worked at it. If you want to take gym as an elective, next session there’s a—-.”
“No! I mean,” I stammered, “like, I need to get stronger now. I can’t wait for next session. It’s really important.”
His expression changed. “Is this a bully situation? Because if it is, I’m supposed to report it.”
“No, nothing like that. I need to put on a lot of muscle quickly, for health reasons.”
“No, you need to put on some weight in a safe manner, over time.”
“Sir, you don’t understand,” I said. “I have a …condition, and adding muscle mass is the only way to keep it from killing me.”
“Hah, that’s a new one, I’ll give you that. I don’t suppose you have any proof? A doctor’s note?”
Ugh, he was stubborn. I guess he was just doing his job, really. Still, the quickest way was probably to tell him the truth.
“I’m under a supernatural curse, coach. And I literally need to get buff fast, it the curse will kill me.”
He laughed. “A curse.”
“I got possessed and the spirit left it behind.”
“Right.”
I sighed, “Fine. You want proof?”
I allowed the pose to manifest; my skin turned grey, my hair white, my eyes red. My limbs elongated unnaturally.
Coach Gary damned near pissed himself. “Holy shit, kid!!!”
I pulled back and returned to normal. “You can’t tell anyone, sir, but it really is serious. There’s some bad stuff around, and if I do this, I can fight it. But it’s more power than my body can handle for long. And every time I do that, it saps my life energy. But Granny says if I can add some muscle mass and build my strength up, I’ll be able to manage it. And if I don’t, it’ll suck me dry.”
Yeah, that’s a lot to dump on an underpaid public school coach.
When he came to, he was quite helpful.
*****
Coach Gary was kind of awesome, really. He actually cared, and he hadn’t been teaching long enough to get completely cynical. And he actually knew a lot about fitness.
“It’s almost a dream project. Scrawny to studly, using a bone fide nerd as a starting point. Ordinarily, we could really shape you up in a couple of months, and do it the right way. And we can still do that, but you have extenuating circumstances.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“Well, I’ll do what I can. You’ll need a standard sports waiver, and we’ll need to schedule some sessions. It’s late enough in the season that the teams won’t be using it for practice all the time. I can give you one on one time twice a week to start. But you’re going to be a gym rat by the time I’m done with you.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’ve been doing what I could from home for the last couple weeks, too.”
“Okay then. You’re going to have to eat what I tell you, and you’re going to need to take supplements. Nothing crazy, nothing illegal. But I’m going to have you work your ass off every single day.”
And he did. He had me go home, eat a big dinner, and sleep, gave me a stack of stuff to take in the morning, and told me to meet him at 6am. I wasn’t thrilled about that part.
*****
The next morning was kind of awful, but I’d vowed to tough it out. Wrestling with a hostile spirit entity that wants to possess you does wonders for your willpower. So there I was outside his office at 6am, in nothing but my gym clothes.
“Good, measurements first, and then we go hard. We have a little over an hour before the teams arrive for early practice. We will stretch and hit weights first, then cardio, then you have school. I’ll send you home with a list of food and I want you to eat every bite. We will see how you respond for the next few days, and adjust. But you’re young and you’ve clearly put in some effort, so I have a good feeling. For today, refuel with these shakes, and then grab a couple of protein bars. And some of these creatine gummies, you’ll be glad of those.”
He wasn’t kidding. I pushed everything to the limit and could barely move by the time he was done with me. The list of foods he pushed into my trembling hand was three pages long and was going to take some effort.
“If your folks can’t hack it, you let me know. At school, you eat lunch in my office. I'll make sure you get what you need.”
*****
A week in, and my routine was set. Get up, drink two protein shakes, come to the gym. Work out for an hour, then half an hour of cardio and stretching, then a small meal. Classes, lunch in Coach Gary’s office (always chicken breast, rice, steamed veggies), swim for an hour after class, go home starving, eat, do homework, sleep. In between I snacked on mostly protein bars or nuts, and every night after dinner, Gran made me work on meditation and control, letting bits of the spiritual energy manifest. A couple of days I nearly lost my lunch because I was eating so much, and the bathroom visits were pretty distressing. But even in that short a time, my body was responding.
Gran approved of my efforts, and had me under strict orders regarding the spiritual stuff — basically only under life and death circumstances. The controlled releases were giving me a better handle on how to use the power I found myself with, but they got tricky because I was constantly sore and tired.
Then one Saturday, I nearly slipped when trying to manifest, and she relented. “Shit, kid, that coach has you so wrung out you can’t do what I need you to do. Don’t want to lose control. Hmm. Maybe it’s time to try a more advanced application.”
She talked me through something new, and by the end of the day, I’d managed some very basic healing. And it proved to be a game changer.
*****
My constantly aching muscles, tired joints, and physical stress was very hard to overcome, but once I got the hang of the healing — which mostly amounted to channeling some off the spiritual energy into my sore spots to trigger and speed up regeneration — I was using it almost every day.
And within a day or two, my improvement was noticeable.
It made sense, because working out was tearing and stressing the muscle; infusing it with energy meant I healed much faster, and that accelerated the muscle building process.
Coach Gary noticed I was doing something, because I kept rising to his challenges. He actually got worried I was on something more potent. I’d told him it was all meditation, but he watched me like a hawk and checked for injection marks when he thought I wouldn’t notice.
“It’s working, whatever it is you’re doing. And you’re not in competition, so you don’t have to worry about drug tests, but between us I want to know you’re not using. It can be deadly if you don’t know what you’re about.”
“Promise.”
“Well, the good news is, you’re doing well. Up ten pounds in the last couple of weeks, and significant improvement in your strength. As for bulk, I think you should eat a bit more and push harder starting tomorrow,” he said.
“I’m already eating 3000 calories a day.”
“Yeah, and you lost the bunch of flab you had, which is great, but you said you needed fifty pounds of muscle. I’d guess you’re up 12, maybe 15. Noob gains are real,”
I was more excited about the modest gains I’d made in my arms and chest and legs, where I no longer suffered from twig arms. In fact, I’d built up some nice looking starter muscles. My core had always been lean, but you could see the development of abs since I started this whole process. Now there was definition, and the start of those Adonis belt muscles. And Coach hadn’t let me skip leg day either.
But the clock was running out. I needed faster results.
*****
I managed to persuade him to push harder. I’d be adding more weight, more sessions, more food. Only my fast recovery, aided by spiritual energy, made it possible.
What’s more, it was working. Now I did a full circuit workout every morning, and concentrated on various muscle groups four days a week after school. With nearly three hours of hard physical activity a day I was pushing to exhaustion, but after a 30-minute session channeling spiritual energy, I was mostly refreshed. At least enough to manage until the next session.
The hardest part was the eating — we’d kept the crazy calorie load, but adjusted the protein load. Still, 250 grams of protein is a LOT, and I had to force feed myself to the point of discomfort. I was thoroughly sick of protein shakes. And chicken breast. And salmon. And brown rice. But I had so little prep time, I had to go the easy route and I wasn’t all that great a cook. I slept like a whole cord of logs every night, though. At least 9 hours. Add in another hour of spiritual training with granny, and I had no time for anything else.
Luckily I was always a good student, or this would have been a huge problem. My course work as a senior was pretty light, and the hard classes were my special interests. So I was able to keep up decently.
*****
————————————
Long story short? I got possessed by a vengeful spirit as a result of a dare. Had some crazy adventures. Got a girlfriend and a new bestie, and another girl who liked me. Then we got in over our heads and stuff happened…and now it was just me.
The others didn’t make it. And that sucked. And that yokai that possessed me? It kind of sacrificed itself. But it left a bit of itself behind.
The old lady at the temple managed to separate some of the dark stuff from me, but its spiritual power kind of got stuck to my soul. And that’s…a problem.
One issue was that apparently monsters and demonic spirits are like, EVERYWHERE. And now that I’ve got a bit of that power, I kinda have to use it to stop the bad ones from doing real damage. Most of my evenings are spent doing that…and homework, since I was a student. But the energy…it was a problem.
There was a lot of it, for one thing. For another, it replenished quickly enough that even after burning through my reserves, it was back in a few hours.
“Look, kid, it’s this simple. Your body can’t take the spiritual power you’re infused with. You gotta get physically stronger or that thing will eat away at you until you’re dead. And you ain’t got much time.”
I didn’t want to die. Still don’t. So I took it seriously.
Problem was, I was basically starting from zero. Classic high school senior, scrawny nerd. Hadn’t had a required gym class since 10th grade, I was 5’6 and a measly 120 pounds.
And so I went to the internet and found some starting tips, and spent the next few weeks downing protein shakes, eating for two, and doing endless pushups, crunches, and other calisthenics.
“Better,” Gran said. “ but not enough. You bought some time, but I think you need at least fifty more pounds of muscle before you’re safe.”
“Fifty? I busted my butt for three weeks and added a whole two pounds.”
“Yeah. It’s a problem. You’re gonna need a gym membership and a trainer, and you’re going to need to step it up.”
Well, it was a matter of life and death. So I went to see Coach Gary, at school.
*****
Coach Gary constantly struggled with the annoying fact that his first name was actually Lawrence. Gary was his last name…. So he was Larry Gary, really, but no student was willing to risk calling him that, though I’d once heard another teacher chuckle over it.
Coach Gary was a junior coach, barely 30, exceptionally fit and built like an underwear spokesmodel. He coached for the body building team and the football team. It was off season so he was mostly focused on the body builders at the moment. He was known to be tough, but he was one of the rare coaches who actually had time for kids who weren’t jocks. I'd had him a few years ago and while he was intimidating, he wasn’t unkind. Not like Coach Simmons, who seemed to delight in ensuring weak kids felt their inferiority.
If anyone could help, it was him.
“What’s up, kid? Why did you want to see me?”
“I…I need to get stronger,” I admitted, embarrassed.
“Huh. Well, that’s a fact,” he said, not unkindly. “You could put some meat on those bones if you worked at it. If you want to take gym as an elective, next session there’s a—-.”
“No! I mean,” I stammered, “like, I need to get stronger now. I can’t wait for next session. It’s really important.”
His expression changed. “Is this a bully situation? Because if it is, I’m supposed to report it.”
“No, nothing like that. I need to put on a lot of muscle quickly, for health reasons.”
“No, you need to put on some weight in a safe manner, over time.”
“Sir, you don’t understand,” I said. “I have a …condition, and adding muscle mass is the only way to keep it from killing me.”
“Hah, that’s a new one, I’ll give you that. I don’t suppose you have any proof? A doctor’s note?”
Ugh, he was stubborn. I guess he was just doing his job, really. Still, the quickest way was probably to tell him the truth.
“I’m under a supernatural curse, coach. And I literally need to get buff fast, it the curse will kill me.”
He laughed. “A curse.”
“I got possessed and the spirit left it behind.”
“Right.”
I sighed, “Fine. You want proof?”
I allowed the pose to manifest; my skin turned grey, my hair white, my eyes red. My limbs elongated unnaturally.
Coach Gary damned near pissed himself. “Holy shit, kid!!!”
I pulled back and returned to normal. “You can’t tell anyone, sir, but it really is serious. There’s some bad stuff around, and if I do this, I can fight it. But it’s more power than my body can handle for long. And every time I do that, it saps my life energy. But Granny says if I can add some muscle mass and build my strength up, I’ll be able to manage it. And if I don’t, it’ll suck me dry.”
Yeah, that’s a lot to dump on an underpaid public school coach.
When he came to, he was quite helpful.
*****
Coach Gary was kind of awesome, really. He actually cared, and he hadn’t been teaching long enough to get completely cynical. And he actually knew a lot about fitness.
“It’s almost a dream project. Scrawny to studly, using a bone fide nerd as a starting point. Ordinarily, we could really shape you up in a couple of months, and do it the right way. And we can still do that, but you have extenuating circumstances.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“Well, I’ll do what I can. You’ll need a standard sports waiver, and we’ll need to schedule some sessions. It’s late enough in the season that the teams won’t be using it for practice all the time. I can give you one on one time twice a week to start. But you’re going to be a gym rat by the time I’m done with you.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’ve been doing what I could from home for the last couple weeks, too.”
“Okay then. You’re going to have to eat what I tell you, and you’re going to need to take supplements. Nothing crazy, nothing illegal. But I’m going to have you work your ass off every single day.”
And he did. He had me go home, eat a big dinner, and sleep, gave me a stack of stuff to take in the morning, and told me to meet him at 6am. I wasn’t thrilled about that part.
*****
The next morning was kind of awful, but I’d vowed to tough it out. Wrestling with a hostile spirit entity that wants to possess you does wonders for your willpower. So there I was outside his office at 6am, in nothing but my gym clothes.
“Good, measurements first, and then we go hard. We have a little over an hour before the teams arrive for early practice. We will stretch and hit weights first, then cardio, then you have school. I’ll send you home with a list of food and I want you to eat every bite. We will see how you respond for the next few days, and adjust. But you’re young and you’ve clearly put in some effort, so I have a good feeling. For today, refuel with these shakes, and then grab a couple of protein bars. And some of these creatine gummies, you’ll be glad of those.”
He wasn’t kidding. I pushed everything to the limit and could barely move by the time he was done with me. The list of foods he pushed into my trembling hand was three pages long and was going to take some effort.
“If your folks can’t hack it, you let me know. At school, you eat lunch in my office. I'll make sure you get what you need.”
*****
A week in, and my routine was set. Get up, drink two protein shakes, come to the gym. Work out for an hour, then half an hour of cardio and stretching, then a small meal. Classes, lunch in Coach Gary’s office (always chicken breast, rice, steamed veggies), swim for an hour after class, go home starving, eat, do homework, sleep. In between I snacked on mostly protein bars or nuts, and every night after dinner, Gran made me work on meditation and control, letting bits of the spiritual energy manifest. A couple of days I nearly lost my lunch because I was eating so much, and the bathroom visits were pretty distressing. But even in that short a time, my body was responding.
Gran approved of my efforts, and had me under strict orders regarding the spiritual stuff — basically only under life and death circumstances. The controlled releases were giving me a better handle on how to use the power I found myself with, but they got tricky because I was constantly sore and tired.
Then one Saturday, I nearly slipped when trying to manifest, and she relented. “Shit, kid, that coach has you so wrung out you can’t do what I need you to do. Don’t want to lose control. Hmm. Maybe it’s time to try a more advanced application.”
She talked me through something new, and by the end of the day, I’d managed some very basic healing. And it proved to be a game changer.
*****
My constantly aching muscles, tired joints, and physical stress was very hard to overcome, but once I got the hang of the healing — which mostly amounted to channeling some off the spiritual energy into my sore spots to trigger and speed up regeneration — I was using it almost every day.
And within a day or two, my improvement was noticeable.
It made sense, because working out was tearing and stressing the muscle; infusing it with energy meant I healed much faster, and that accelerated the muscle building process.
Coach Gary noticed I was doing something, because I kept rising to his challenges. He actually got worried I was on something more potent. I’d told him it was all meditation, but he watched me like a hawk and checked for injection marks when he thought I wouldn’t notice.
“It’s working, whatever it is you’re doing. And you’re not in competition, so you don’t have to worry about drug tests, but between us I want to know you’re not using. It can be deadly if you don’t know what you’re about.”
“Promise.”
“Well, the good news is, you’re doing well. Up ten pounds in the last couple of weeks, and significant improvement in your strength. As for bulk, I think you should eat a bit more and push harder starting tomorrow,” he said.
“I’m already eating 3000 calories a day.”
“Yeah, and you lost the bunch of flab you had, which is great, but you said you needed fifty pounds of muscle. I’d guess you’re up 12, maybe 15. Noob gains are real,”
I was more excited about the modest gains I’d made in my arms and chest and legs, where I no longer suffered from twig arms. In fact, I’d built up some nice looking starter muscles. My core had always been lean, but you could see the development of abs since I started this whole process. Now there was definition, and the start of those Adonis belt muscles. And Coach hadn’t let me skip leg day either.
But the clock was running out. I needed faster results.
*****
I managed to persuade him to push harder. I’d be adding more weight, more sessions, more food. Only my fast recovery, aided by spiritual energy, made it possible.
What’s more, it was working. Now I did a full circuit workout every morning, and concentrated on various muscle groups four days a week after school. With nearly three hours of hard physical activity a day I was pushing to exhaustion, but after a 30-minute session channeling spiritual energy, I was mostly refreshed. At least enough to manage until the next session.
The hardest part was the eating — we’d kept the crazy calorie load, but adjusted the protein load. Still, 250 grams of protein is a LOT, and I had to force feed myself to the point of discomfort. I was thoroughly sick of protein shakes. And chicken breast. And salmon. And brown rice. But I had so little prep time, I had to go the easy route and I wasn’t all that great a cook. I slept like a whole cord of logs every night, though. At least 9 hours. Add in another hour of spiritual training with granny, and I had no time for anything else.
Luckily I was always a good student, or this would have been a huge problem. My course work as a senior was pretty light, and the hard classes were my special interests. So I was able to keep up decently.
*****
