Mordechai immediately went for his card key and press the sub-basement button. There he had all access to his own office, a windowless training room with training equipment, 14 monitors with a supercomputer hooked up to every surveillance camera in the city, a shooting range, and a garage.

He wasted no time getting into his training gear and started to do his usual training regimen.

First, he did 50 repetitions of a one-armed pull-up by grabbing the pull-up bar with each arm, pulling his chest to the bar, pausing for 10 seconds, and then lowering his body back to the starting position.

Afterward, he had to do 100 repetitions of Deadlifts. Bending at his hips and grab the bar with an overhand grip, his hands just beyond shoulder width. Without allowing his lower back to round, he had to pull his torso back and upthrust his hips forward and stand up with the barbell. Squeeze his glutes as he performed the movement. Lowering the bar to the floor, keeping it as close to his body as possible.

Then he had to do 100 repetitions of push-ups by getting down on all fours and placing his hands on the floor so that they’re slightly wider than and in line with his shoulders. Lowering his body until his chest nearly touches the floor. Pausing at the bottom, and then pushing himself back to the starting position as quickly as possible.

After he did 100 repetitions of 24-inch box jumps as he stood in front of a sturdy, secure box that's high enough so that you must climb by a tremendous effort to land on top of it. They had to use additional boxes for this one.

When he was done with that, he had to do 100 repetitions of floor wipers; holding a 270-pound full bar above his chest, bring your feet up together to the left plate, down to the middle, and up to the right plate before putting them down in the middle. That’s one repetition.

With no end in sight, he had to do 100 repetitions of single-arm clean-and-press with 100-lbs. Kettlebell by standing shoulder-width apart with a kettlebell. Bending and grabbing the kettlebell with an overhand grip. Diving his hips and legs through the floor to bring the kettlebell up to your chest. Pushing overhead before lowering it to the ground in a controlled movement. That’s one rep. He made sure to touch the ground before each repetition and had to perform 50 repetitions per arm.

Finally, he had to do 50 more repetitions of regular pull-ups by grabbing the pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and hang at arm’s length, pulling his chest to the bar, pause, and then lowering his body back to the starting position.

After the workout, he was in severe pain. Fortunately, he was used to it, and he let out a mighty battle cry and pushed forward. He got on the treadmill and ran for 65 miles an hour, 30 minutes straight. Then he practiced on his wushu techniques on the Wing Chun Wooden Dummy Boxing Bag for about an hour. Afterward, he started practicing roundhouse kicks with the heavy punching bags as well. Then finally, he put on some boxing gloves and begun to punch away at the heavy bags.

During his workout, his older brother Rahkaze steps in, watching his brother train, “beautiful, you’re becoming better with the striking. What about your weapons technique and your promitto?”

Promitto is a Diara’s signature weapon they create and bond with their own souls. Every Diara, whether if they are pureblood or cross-bred from other species, are born with one. Like a rite of passage but not really a requirement anymore, Diaras seek out and build such weapons journeying through several great beyonds and astral planes. Mordechai’s promitto took the form of a royal blue and royal purple compound bow.

Mordechai paused as he catches his breath, “it’s been better. But I’ve been easily creating trick arrows as well. Also, I have been using my elemental transmutative grenades. They work like a charm! I’m going to entail the ETGs in my arsenal.”

“Yup! Always fight smarter and not harder, little brother,” Rahkaze agreed. “Do you want a sparring match?”

Mordechai balked at the idea, “after what transpired early this morning, I think you would use some exercise.”

Already in his training gear, both Rahkaze and Mordechai went on the training mat and started to spar with eskrima sticks or bastons.

The baston (Spanish and Filipino for "cane") is one of the primary weapons of Arnis and Filipino martial arts. It is also known as yantok, olisi, palo, pamalo, garrote, caña, cane, arnis stick, eskrima stick, or simply, stick. The usage of bastons for historical fencing (esgrima in Spanish) has been recorded at least as far back as 400 years ago. Traditional conventional materials for wooden bastons are usually rattan, kamagong, and bahi wood.

In Arnis and Filipino martial arts, aside from being a primary weapon, bastons are also used as implements to train with bladed weapons such as bolos, machetes, and other Philippine knives and swords as many motions using the canes are applicable when translated to blades and vice versa. Using wooden training weapons like the baston instead of real blades is also done for safety considerations.

For training in espada y daga styles, a baston and a balisong knife is a common combination. Hitting suspended or mounted vehicle tires is also a common practice to build speed, power, and impact by practitioners. They were relentless and held nothing back with their smooth yet lightning-fast techniques, being in sync with each other as they were attacking, defending, and countering each other. This went on for at least an hour.

It was almost noon, and Sylvia arrived at Mordechai’s office with a pair of sandwiches and a pair of drinks. There, she sees both brothers, who are both fatigued and slightly bruised.

This pleased Sylvia, “I take it, you guys had fun today.”

Both brothers laughed it off sincerely. And it was fun. To them, training was a release. They all learned various martial arts and weapons training from their mother, Revan, who was the previous version of Memento in her family’s legacy as Lady Memento.

She “retired” that mantle after her identity was compromised and was forced to leave it all behind. Which was a Godsend since she wanted to quit in the first place and hand over the mantle to someone more deserving of it, like her youngest son Mordechai who is secretly known as “Memento Dark.”

Sylvia set the tray of food on the table as the brothers walked towards her.

“I went to Panera Bread and got you all Portobello mushroom burgers and raspberry tofu smoothies,” Sylvia announced as they started eating.

“Thank you, Sylvia,” Mordechai obliged.

“No problem at all,” Sylvia said as she went her way to the 16 symmetrical monitors and sat down in the executive chair, overseeing the city.

While there were eating, Mordechai couldn’t help himself asking Rahkaze an obvious question, “brother, they really did rattle you back there, didn’t they?”

Rahkaze only shook his head, but his brother was right, “I guess they did get under my skin a little bit, Mordechai. To be honest, you are a fortunate one. You didn’t get to see the ‘females’ as I have seen them. You thought to be in that syndicate was hard, dealing with them was a hell of a lot worse than studying for tests and training evaluations.”

Mordechai pondered what his brother spoke about as he took a sip of his smoothie, “I do take your word for it, brother. However, I do feel a bit contradictive with the phrase you speak of. Yes, those ‘females’ were difficult to deal with. But there is a reason behind everything. They were trained for such purpose to exterminate certain and selected types of life without question or meaning. Although the Eichners have given them free will to do whatever they choose. To whomever they want.”

Feeling better, this made Rahkaze laugh as he rebutted his brother’s words, “Mordechai, you are a fool. You’re fortunate that I am in a good mood. Free will is a lie. It is an illusion made by people with the power to keep everyone else in line. Always have been, always will…”

Faltering, Mordechai tries to make it all makes sense, “Rahkaze, although Grandmaster Eichner has given his subordinates the liberty to do whatever they choose, doesn’t mean all of them abuse it… Wandering around in this world like some lost puppy in the street somewhere… Maybe… Maybe at a time where things could be… All I’m saying is, we all have choices in life. Whether the heavens have given us a path… Some people follow such a path only to create their own.”

Rahkaze knew he was trying his best. He patted his baby brother on the back to calm his nerves, “forgive me, Mordechai. I guess we can say they instilled some negativity in me. It took me a while to shake it off. But it’s still there. Hanging over me and playing her song like a wind chime.”

“Things have gotten better. It could have gotten a hell of a lot worse. This could be World War III right now. But instead, we are talking about our problems. They are still battles, and they are manageable to say bluntly. We all did the right thing,” Mordechai said as he took a bite of the sandwich.

“I’m delighted to have you as a brother, Mordechai. I’m honored,” Rahkaze praised as this makes his baby brother blush.

“W-well, I don’t think I’ve done anything that important. I just do what I can,” Mordechai bashfully admitted.