Flight

Ryuto stood beside the deep pool, looking at the waterfall more than thirty meters high before him.

The water crashed down with a roar like thunder.

The dark gold patches were still attached to his body. Under eight times the weight, even walking felt heavy. But after walking for the past two days, his body had begun to adjust.

"This is the place."

Ryuto tossed his backpack onto a nearby rock and walked directly beneath the waterfall.

Spray hit his face, soaking his clothes in an instant.

He looked up at the top of the waterfall, took a deep breath, and walked straight into the curtain of water.

Boom!

Water hammered his head and shoulders as if a group of burly men were taking turns hitting him with hammers. Ryuto's legs buckled, and he nearly dropped to his knees.

He gritted his teeth and steadied himself, Ki surging from within him to cover his whole body.

It was not a protective barrier, just a simple coating of Ki to strengthen his body against the impact.

After standing there for about five minutes, Ryuto felt that was enough.

He stepped out of the waterfall and walked to the clearing beside the pool.

"I'll try that first."

Ryuto recalled how Goku had practiced the Flight Technique in Dragon Ball. The principle was simple: jet Ki downward, producing a reactive force that lifted the body.

It sounded simple, but putting it into practice...

Ryuto concentrated his Ki beneath his feet and tried jetting it downward.

Pfft-

A burst of Ki shot from beneath his feet, scattering loose stones across the ground.

He himself... did not move.

"Not enough force?"

Ryuto increased his Ki output.

Boom!

This time, the Ki blasted out harder. He shot half a meter upward, then fell with a smack, landing on his backside.

"The direction's wrong. It's too scattered."

Ryuto got up and brushed the dirt off himself.

He adjusted again, compressing the Ki more tightly and directing it straight down from his soles like two jet nozzles.

Hum-

His body slowly rose off the ground.

Ten centimeters, twenty centimeters, thirty centimeters...

Ryuto hovered in midair, swaying as if he were drunk.

"Steady, steady..."

He worked to control his Ki output and maintain his balance.

But before three seconds passed, his Ki went awry, and he fell again.

"Again."

Undiscouraged, Ryuto kept trying.

Once, twice, three times...

Each time, he stayed airborne longer. From three seconds to five, from five seconds to ten.

After about two hours of practice, Ryuto could hover steadily for a minute.

He still wobbled, but at least he no longer fell for no reason.

"Just floating is useless. I need to move."

Ryuto tried moving while hovering.

He adjusted the direction of the Ki jets beneath his feet, tilting his body forward.

Whoosh!

He shot forward, but too hard, crashing straight into a tree ahead.

Thud!

The tree shook, shedding a few leaves.

Ryuto landed, rubbing his forehead.

"Still need to practice steering."

He continued.

Hover, move, crash into a tree; hover, move, crash into a rock; hover, move, fall into the water...

The poolside looked like the scene of a car wreck.

But Ryuto could feel his control over Ki improving with every failure.

He practiced for another two hours.

The sun began sinking westward.

Ryuto hovered about two meters above the ground. The Ki beneath his feet streamed out steadily as he slowly turned a circle in the air, then drifted five or six meters forward and landed firmly.

"Got it."

Ryuto wiped the water from his face and smiled.

He still could not fly fast or high, but at least he could fly.

"Next, let's try combining it with high-speed movement."

Ryuto removed the weights-only for a little while. He would put the patches back on after practice.

His body instantly felt so light he might float away.

He pushed off, shooting forward with a whoosh and weaving rapidly through the woods. Then, while running, he released Ki from beneath his feet.

Whoosh!

He lifted straight off the ground, transitioning from running to low-altitude flight as his speed doubled.

"Holy shit!"

Even Ryuto startled himself. He hastily adjusted his course, narrowly avoiding a large rock ahead.

He turned in the air, circled back to the pool, and landed.

"This has potential."

Ryuto's eyes lit up.

High-speed movement plus the Flight Technique meant high-speed aerial maneuvering. In future fights, others would run on the ground while he flew through the sky. That was an enormous advantage.

"Let's practice changing direction."

Ryuto rose into the air again, this time a little higher, about five meters above the ground.

He flew forward, then suddenly changed the direction of the Ki jets beneath his feet, forcing himself into a right-angle turn in midair.

"Yes!"

Ryuto made several sharp turns and loops in the air. His movements were still a little stiff, but the basic framework was there.

Only when the sun was nearly down did Ryuto land.

He reactivated the weight patches. The eightfold pressure returned, and his body grew heavy again.

But this time, heavy as it was, it felt different.

Ryuto tried hovering under the weight.

It was strenuous, and his Ki drained in torrents, but... he could rise.

He could only get half a meter off the ground and last less than ten seconds, but he could indeed hover.

"I can use it with the weights on, too. It just consumes a lot." Ryuto landed and caught his breath. "But that's perfect for training my Ki reserves and control."

He walked to the waterfall and stepped into the curtain of water again.

This time, he tried hovering within it.

With water crashing down, his Ki had to resist the impact while keeping him airborne. The difficulty doubled outright.

Ryuto lasted only five seconds before falling, and the water sent him tumbling into the deep pool.

He climbed out of the water and coughed a few times.

"Hard, but effective."

He could feel his Ki circulating faster under the extreme pressure.

Ryuto only stopped practicing once it was completely dark.

He built a fire, dried his clothes, and ate a few bites of dry rations.

After eating, he did not rest, instead walking to the clearing beside the pool.

"I need to keep working on that move, too."

Ryuto raised his right hand, palm up.

Ki began gathering in his palm, compressing.

He had already been able to compress Ki into a small ball with considerably more power than an ordinary Ki Blast. But that was not enough. He wanted to compress more.

More Ki, less volume, greater density.

Ryuto gritted his teeth and pressed the Ki into his palm.

Golden light shone in his palm, growing brighter and more dazzling.

The mass of Ki shrank, but its density increased.

Ryuto could feel the mass of Ki in his palm growing hotter and building pressure like a little sun.

He kept compressing it.

The mass shrank to the size of a table tennis ball, its golden light already too dazzling to look at.

"A little smaller..."

Sweat beaded on Ryuto's forehead, and his arm trembled.

The mass of Ki shrank to the size of a marble.

Then-

Pfft!

The mass of Ki suddenly burst, scattering golden light and making the surrounding leaves rustle loudly.

The recoil knocked Ryuto back two steps, leaving his arm numb.

"Still no good." He looked at his palm. "I can't keep it stable once it's compressed to the limit."

But this time, the mass of Ki had shrunk smaller, and the burst had been more powerful than before.

There was progress.

Ryuto shook his hand, waited for his arm to recover, and tried again.

This time, he was more careful, compressing slowly and sensing every change in his Ki.

The mass shrank to the size of a marble and began pulsing erratically.

Instead of forcing it smaller, Ryuto eased off slightly, letting it stabilize before slowly compressing it again.

The size of a marble, the size of a soybean...

Crack.

The mass of Ki made a faint sound, and golden lines like cracks appeared across its surface.

Ryuto stopped immediately.

He felt that if he compressed it any further, it really would explode.

He slowly dispersed the mass of Ki.

The golden light vanished, and the temperature of his palm gradually dropped.

"Almost." Ryuto looked at his hand. "But the power should be enough."

He walked up to a boulder half his height and gathered another mass of Ki.

This time, he did not compress it to the limit, only to the size of a marble, then pushed it forward.

Whoosh-

The golden speck flew out and struck the rock.

There was no explosion, no loud crash.

The speck plunged straight into the rock, and then-

A fist-sized hole appeared through the middle of the rock, open from front to back, its edges as smooth as if they had been polished.

Ryuto walked over to examine it.

The hole was deep, and he could see the woods beyond it.

"Enough penetrating power." He nodded. "But the area's too small. It's useless if it misses."

He needed a way to widen the area of attack, or... improve his accuracy.

Ryuto thought for a while but had no ideas for the moment.

"I'll work on it tomorrow."

He returned to the fire and sat down, watching the dancing flames.

Deep in the mountains, it was quiet, with only the roar of the waterfall and the occasional cry of a wild beast in the distance.

No war, no ninja, no clan disputes.

Just him alone, training, growing stronger.

Ryuto clenched his fists, feeling the Ki flowing within him.

He had gained an initial grasp of the Flight Technique and made progress with that move, too. He was still far from his goal, but at least he was moving forward.

He stood, walked to the pool, and looked at his reflection in the water.

The person in the reflection had a resolute gaze.

"Uncle Yamano," Ryuto said to the water, "just watch."

"I'll become strong. Strong enough that no one dares mess with me."

"Strong enough to protect everything I want to protect."

"Strong enough to survive in this chaotic world my own way."

The reflection in the water wavered but said nothing.

But Ryuto knew he was listening.

In the distance, the moon rose.

Deep in the mountains, the waterfall was still roaring.