Zi Xu's Strength

Chino smoothed back her slightly messy blue-black hair, then raised her hands, one in front of the other, and resumed her fighting stance. A Bagua compass appeared beneath her feet. It was clear she was taking Zi Xu seriously: she'd started in her strongest stance. If opening her eyes didn't consume such a tremendous amount of Chakra, she would have opened them right away to face him. That would have been safer, too.

Seeing Chino standing ready, Zi Xu decided to get serious as well. He'd have to show at least some of his strength to deal with her. Though the others all knew his true strength without saying it, an obvious intentional loss would be hard to explain.

"Then let's do this." Zi Xu took up a serious fighting stance and loosened his limbs. A breeze stirred the wrinkles in his clothes. He glanced at the sky: it was getting dark, but sunset was still some time away.

The breeze swept a few fallen leaves between Zi Xu and Chino. As the leaves touched the ground, the two charged at each other in unspoken agreement.

"G-Get... started? Huh? Why did you start without waiting for me to say so... Forget it..." Hatsumi bristled, but could only shake her head helplessly. Pouting, she sat down to watch them fight.

Chino attacked first, holding her ground as the Bagua Disk beneath her feet slowly moved toward Zi Xu. She gathered Chakra in her palms and used Gentle Fist techniques to fire it outward. Planting her feet, she struck out with one hand after the other, launching streams of airborne pressure.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

The energy released by Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm was invisible and colorless; usually, only special ocular techniques like the Sharingan or Byakugan could see its trajectory. But Zi Xu could clearly make out the path of every incoming attack with his five senses alone. He could have taken the force of the palms head-on, but instead he rapidly shifted his footing and sprang into the air, dodging them with a powerful push from his back leg.

Afterward, Zi Xu charged Chino without so much as breaking a sweat, trying to close the distance and use the Taijutsu he excelled at. But as Chino launched her palms, the Bagua compass beneath her feet had also been moving toward him. As he drew near, the disk enveloped him.

"Byakugan!" Chino activated her Byakugan in an instant. Through it, she could clearly see that Zi Xu was wearing blue underwear today—no, wait, that wasn't right. She could see the flow of Chakra in his body. But Zi Xu's physical constitution was so powerful that she couldn't see all the way through him. She could only make out some of the meridians near the surface, but that was enough.

"Hm?" Zi Xu felt a chill in his back, as if something had struck him. He glanced over and saw a few pebbles rising from the ground and hitting him at a decent speed. Against an ordinary person, Chino would have used the airborne stones to strike their pressure points and block their Chakra. But on Zi Xu, the effect was negligible.

"So that 'Mystic Gate' can be used like this? Looks like she really was holding back when she fought me..." Hatsumi watched Chino use a novel technique and felt a little discouraged. But she didn't lose heart. If she followed the training methods Zi Xu had given her, she was sure she could become just as good as Chino.

She shifted her gaze to Zi Xu, locked in combat with Chino. The attacks that could have sealed her pressure points struck him as if they were nothing. He showed no sign of being affected, yet still dodged them. Hatsumi knew he was putting on an act again. He was always like this: even when dealing with their attacks effortlessly, he acted as if he were "almost exhausted, and one more push would be enough to hit him."

But whether it was her imagination or not, Hatsumi felt that Zi Xu seemed different today. She couldn't quite say how—if she had to, she'd say his aura had changed. It seemed a little... sharper.

The fight between Zi Xu and Chino continued. Once Chino realized the pebbles weren't working well, she stopped using them and activated her Red Eye, trying to cast Genjutsu on Zi Xu. A scarlet glow spread from the center of her pupils, and red Chakra gradually seeped from her right eye as she met Zi Xu's gaze.

Zi Xu felt as if something had licked his brain. Yes, if he had to describe it, it was like a lick. It didn't feel like an attack at all; it was like getting hit with frosting from a cake. He didn't even lose focus for an instant. He blinked and came back to himself.

"Shouldn't I act like I'm falling under Genjutsu? What does that look like? Do I just stand here like an idiot?" Zi Xu wasn't sure what to do. Would it be awkward if he just casually walked over to Chino now? Maybe he should pretend he'd fallen for it.

Chino was at a loss as she watched Zi Xu standing there like an idiot. Wait, the Genjutsu was supposed to make him see that rock as me. Why was he staring at me? Hadn't she used the right Genjutsu?

Chino began to doubt herself. She cast Genjutsu on Zi Xu again, but this time it felt even weaker to him. He didn't even feel like frosting had hit his face—he couldn't feel so much as a puff of air. Her Genjutsu attack was like a small sum invested in the stock market: it hadn't exactly sunk without a trace, but it had vanished without a sound.

"I don't have any way to resist Genjutsu, do I? I figured I could tough it out with my body, but how did I end up completely immune?" Zi Xu stood there like an idiot, taking the opportunity to figure out why he hadn't fallen for the Genjutsu.

"...Maybe it's because my Conqueror's Haki awakened? Awakening Conqueror's Haki must have given me a stronger mental foundation, so I can resist some Genjutsu?" Unable to think of a better explanation, he could only attribute it to Conqueror's Haki. Then he stopped standing around like an idiot. Chino still hadn't attacked him, which felt a little off, so he decided to go on the offensive.

Seeing Zi Xu finally move, Chino's mind filled with questions. Before she used Genjutsu, he'd stood there like he was under its control. But when she'd used all her strength to maintain it, he'd charged at her as if nothing were wrong. Was there a delay in her Genjutsu?

She'd have to wait until the fight was over to figure it out. The battle in front of her was what mattered now. Refocusing on Zi Xu, Chino stopped wasting energy maintaining the Bagua formation beneath her feet. Since Mystic Gate had barely affected him, she would gather her strength and fight him with Taijutsu instead.

"Of course it's come to this. Zi Xu's going to take control of the pace again." Watching the two prepare to fight at close range, Hatsumi looked unsurprised. Their fights always went this way. He didn't have any special techniques; he just relied on solid Taijutsu and a brutish, nearly unreasonable body to smash through his opponent's offense head-on.

They had never found a way to counter this simple strategy. Zi Xu always came up with some excuse to concede just before winning, so he had the lowest win rate among the three. But they all knew who the real winner would have been.

"Gentle Fist!" As they drew closer, just before they collided, both used Gentle Fist.

Chino bent her left elbow slightly, curled her left hand into a palm with her fingers pointing down, and thrust her palm forward. At the same time, she raised her right hand, holding it edge-on and ready to follow up her left-hand attack. Zi Xu took the same stance, though he leaned slightly forward and held his left elbow in front of him.

"Boom!" Their attacks collided, sending dust flying from the ground. Chino and Zi Xu each stumbled half a step back, then crashed together again. Chino's Gentle Fist had been performed exactly as her clan had taught her, which made it somewhat formulaic.

But Zi Xu's skill in Taijutsu might have been influenced by Kaido's Physique. His understanding of it was so advanced that even he sometimes found it strange. More than anything, his combat instincts were remarkable: whenever an attack came, he could react as quickly and correctly as possible. It had become second nature.

Just like in their exchange a moment ago, Zi Xu used his elbow to block Chino's palm, then extended his forearm to disrupt the attack she was building with her other hand. Finally, he landed a strike, and the advantage gradually shifted in his favor.

Without Chino's Byakugan, Zi Xu couldn't guarantee that he would hit all of her pressure points. But with the chart of the human body's pressure points Chino had given him, he could still hit most of them. Zi Xu learned theory from Chino, while Chino learned practical fighting skills from Zi Xu.

They traded punches and kicks in a close-range standoff. Thanks to the Bug Body Refinement Hatsumi had given her, Chino's physical strength had caught up, so Zi Xu couldn't easily hurt her—though that was only because he was holding back.

"Huff, huff..." Chino stood panting, like a fish out of water greedily trying to draw moisture from the air. By contrast, Zi Xu stood across from her as if nothing had happened, a strange aura emanating from him.

Before they knew it, the stars and moon had claimed half the night sky. The twilight sun lingered reluctantly over the western hills, as if it wanted to compete with the moon for the night. Chino had collapsed to the ground, sweat streaming from her body and soaking her shirt. Zi Xu stood over her. Before Hatsumi could guess what excuse he'd come up with to concede, he smiled slightly.

"I won." He reached out one hand toward the exhausted Chino. She looked at the hand he offered.

"I thought you were going to figure out how to lose again."

Chino took Zi Xu's hand and let him help her up. Hatsumi came over and dusted her off, then poked Zi Xu.

"You seem a little different today."

"How so?"

"Your aura seems a little different, like... umm, a fish turning into a young dragon?"

"Hahahaha! Does it? Anyway, why don't you and Chino take a bath later?"

"Of course. Oh, and my Moonlight Worms need to absorb moonlight right now..."

As Hatsumi spoke, she released several dim-looking little bugs. Beneath the moonlight, they slowly flapped their wings, and a faint blue glow began to shine from their tails.

"Ta-da! Moonlight Worms can work as lights at night, too. Cool, right?"

"Yeah, very cool," Chino said, sounding exhausted.

"Hey, that was way too unenthusiastic."

"Mhm, they're really cool."

Beneath the moonlight, the three of them walked home, laughing and chatting in the glow of the Moonlight Worms, the stars, and the moon. With the wild grass and insects singing around them, Zi Xu wore a genuine smile—the first he'd shown in a long time.