Odin walked to the end of the corridor, where there was a round porthole.
He stopped and looked outside through the glass.
The sky was deep blue, and the clouds spread out below like an endless gray ocean.
The airship cruised steadily above the clouds. It wasn't moving very fast, and he could feel a slight jostling caused by the air currents.
Odin stood by the window, thinking about the next test.
According to the plot, the third test should be the Trick Tower.
They would have to find a route to the bottom within seventy-two hours, facing all kinds of traps and challenges along the way, either alone or in teams.
He preferred going solo.
A team could share the burden, but it also meant having to accommodate other people's pace, and he might end up saddled with incompetent teammates.
But before that-
Odin turned, ready to return to his room and wait.
Just then, he heard something.
It was a faint sound, mixed with something like-the rush of wind?
The sound came from the other side of the corridor, where the airship's lounge was.
Odin hesitated for a moment, then headed that way.
The closer he got, the clearer the sounds became.
Impacts, air rushing with rapid movement, and the occasional panting breath.
The lounge door was ajar, light spilling through the gap.
Odin peered through the doorway.
The sight inside made him pause.
The lounge was spacious, with a thick carpet covering the floor. In the open space at its center, two people were moving rapidly.
One was chasing, and the other was dodging.
The one dodging was Chairman Netero.
The old man still wore his loose-fitting clothes. He was barefoot, with that same cheerful smile on his face.
His movements didn't look particularly fast as he turned and shifted.
But the person chasing him was Killua.
The silver-haired boy's expression was nothing like his usual lazy or teasing look.
His lips were pressed tight, his eyes fixed on every move Netero made as he darted and lunged through the limited space.
His target was the volleyball in Netero's hand.
Rather than Netero's utterly natural movements, Odin focused more on the footwork Killua was displaying.
It wasn't ordinary running or jumping, but an exceptionally refined technique.
With every step, the angle at which his foot landed, the point where he applied force, and the shift of his center of gravity all flowed naturally.
He didn't move in straight lines, but in strange curves, veering left and right, charging forward one moment and retreating the next, making him difficult to predict.
Even more astonishingly, afterimages accompanied Killua's movements.
They weren't the visual trails Odin produced through sheer speed, but a more deliberate form of deception.
As he moved, his body would suddenly sway ever so slightly, creating fleeting phantom images that threw off his opponent's judgment.
Rhythm Echo!
Odin knew what it was. Killua had demonstrated it in the story, too.
It was the Zoldyck Family's assassination footwork, a technique that used control over the muscles and center of gravity to create seemingly impossible movement patterns, combined with breathing and misdirection through the eyes to produce visual deception.
When Odin had seen this scene before, he had envied it. It was far more refined than his Afterimage Fist, and he'd thought how much cooler his Afterimage Fist would look if he knew this technique.
Just then, Killua launched another rush.
His body flickered as he closed in on Netero, his arm reaching out and all five fingers spread, aiming for the volleyball in Netero's hand.
Netero reacted lightning-fast.
The instant Killua moved, he drew his right foot half a step back and turned his body to the left.
Killua seemed to have anticipated this, stepping out with his left foot as Netero moved.
When it landed, he didn't plant it firmly, but lightly tapped the carpet with the outer edge of his forefoot.
That single tap sent his body sliding sideways against its own momentum, like a leaf caught in the wind, keeping close as he pursued Netero's hand.
Killua's hand closed on empty air.
"Ho ho!" Netero laughed, holding up the volleyball and grinning at Killua.
Killua took a breath. Rather than getting angry, he reset his stance and continued his grand campaign to seize the ball.
Odin watched from the sidelines, rapidly analyzing what he saw.
The core of Rhythm Echo was control.
Control over the rhythm of muscle contractions, the timing of weight shifts, the coordination of breathing and gaze, and the transitions between rapid movement and abrupt stops.
This was different from the pure speed he gained through the Rabbit Talisman.
The Rabbit Talisman made him fast, but speed was all it gave him.
His movements were all in straight lines. The same went for his Afterimage Fist, which required repeated pauses to create afterimages.
Killua's afterimages didn't have that problem. No, they did, but the pauses were far less obvious than Odin's. Everything flowed smoothly.
Clearly, Rhythm Echo suited Odin very well.
In the center of the lounge, Killua moved again.
This time, instead of rushing in, he walked slowly toward Netero.
His steps looked casual, as though he were taking a stroll, but each footfall made the carpet sink slightly with a dull thud.
A few seconds later, Killua seemed to skip frames before Odin's eyes, producing a multitude of figures.
Three steps.
Two steps.
One step.
Killua reached out.
Time slipped by. Killua kept trying for more than ten minutes, yet he never once managed to snatch the volleyball from Netero's hand.
Killua panted, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
He wiped his face, picked up his clothes from the floor, and headed out with a dark expression.
"Let's go, Gon," Killua called to Gon, who had been watching from the side all this time.
"Huh? But I want to keep trying. I was so close," Gon said urgently.
Killua froze for a moment, then pointed angrily at Netero and shouted, "Haven't you figured it out yet? This old man's just messing with us! It looks like we're close every time, but with our current strength, we'll never get the ball!"
"He hasn't moved from that spot this entire time."
Killua's words made Gon look at Netero in astonishment. Sure enough, no matter how he had dodged Killua, he had never left his spot in the center.
Odin had noticed that long ago; he had simply been more interested in Killua's movements.
"I still want to try," Gon told Killua earnestly, clearly unwilling to let such a good "opponent" slip away after leaving his island.
"Done playing?" Netero asked with a chuckle. "I can give you another hand as a handicap."
Gon immediately raised his hand. "Okay, my turn!"
"Come on."
Gon jumped up and ran into the center.
His style was completely different from Killua's-more direct, more reliant on instinct, without so many fancy techniques, but his reactions were astonishingly fast.
Odin watched the two begin another round of their "game," but his mind was replaying every movement he had just seen.
He had roughly worked out the key points of Rhythm Echo.
The question now was how to incorporate it into his own fighting style.
His advantage was speed.
The sheer speed the Rabbit Talisman granted him let him overwhelm the vast majority of opponents.
But he had encountered too little of this kind of footwork before, so all his movements were straightforward.
If I could incorporate Rhythm Echo's footwork...
Blend those subtle changes of direction and feints into high-speed movement, making my path harder to predict.
He could even improve his strength enormously without using the Rabbit Talisman.
"Suit yourself." Seeing Gon's choice, Killua didn't try to stop him. He muttered those words and walked past Odin, leaving the lounge.
Odin glanced at the departing Killua, then looked back toward the center.
Gon's movements were much rougher than Killua's, but his beastlike instincts sometimes let him react in unexpected ways.
Moves like those were of no use to Odin.
With that thought, Odin turned to leave.
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