The night lay heavy, enveloping all of Mount Momoyama.
Uesugi Sasuke stood in a secluded clearing on the mountain's rear slopes, an almost crazed light burning in his eyes.
The fog had lifted.
The wall that had troubled him for days came crashing down in his mind.
He had found the path that belonged to him alone.
A Breathing Style was not a source of power. It was a technique, a switch.
A switch used to ignite the body's latent potential.
And his body was utterly different from those of the ordinary people in this world.
A higher form of energy called chakra flowed within his body.
So the question had never been how to make his body adapt to a Breathing Style.
It was how to make a Breathing Style serve his chakra.
To use this world's "techniques" to unleash his own "power."
The corners of Sasuke's mouth rose uncontrollably into a cold, confident curve.
Listen to the sound of thunder?
No.
He would make lightning obey his commands.
He walked to the center of the clearing, slowly drew his broken half of a wooden sword, and assumed his sword-drawing stance again.
This time, his state of mind was entirely different.
There was no more bewildered imitation, nor obsessive deconstruction.
Instead, there was the scrutiny of a creator looking down from above.
He closed his eyes and began adjusting his breathing.
He no longer tried to feel anything as elusive as "surging blood" or "cell activation."
For him, breathing was simply the pure, rhythmic intake and release of air.
A necessary step in initiating a program.
As his breathing gradually grew short and forceful, he began mobilizing another power within his body.
Chakra.
Pure lightning release chakra began seeping into the muscle fibers of his legs under his will, like a gentle stream.
His concept was perfect.
Thunder Breathing would "overclock" his bodily functions, opening the valves of every energy channel.
And his chakra would be the torrent that poured in.
The explosive power produced by combining the two would far surpass Thunderclap and Flash alone.
It would even surpass the Chidori he had once been unable to control.
The sensation of chakra pouring in grew stronger and stronger.
His legs began to feel faintly numb, their muscle fibers trembling slightly and uncontrollably under the energy's stimulation.
Now.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open, absolute reason and confidence reflected in those pitch-black pupils.
"Thunder Breathing..."
He called out in a low voice, every word brimming with power.
"First Form..."
He lowered his body further, every muscle tensed to its limit, like a fully drawn bow.
Then.
An eruption!
"Thunderclap and Flash!"
Boom!
A terrifying force unlike anything before exploded within his legs.
In that instant, Sasuke felt as though he had truly become a bolt of lightning.
The scenery before him stretched endlessly, blurring into flowing light and shadow.
The wind became a shrill howl in his ears.
It worked!
The thought had barely flashed through his mind.
Something went wrong.
The potential drawn from deep within his body by the Breathing Style and the lightning release chakra he had forcibly poured in clashed violently inside him, like two bulls colliding head-on.
Though both powers shared the nature of "lightning," their origins were utterly different.
One was an explosive burst gained by wringing out life itself.
The other was a perfect combination of spiritual and physical energy.
They were incompatible.
They frantically repelled, tore at, and battered each other.
"Aargh!"
An irrepressible groan of pain squeezed its way out of Sasuke's throat.
His body lost all control while still in midair.
It felt as though countless red-hot steel needles were stabbing wildly through his chakra pathways and blood vessels.
It also felt as though an invisible force was forcibly tearing his muscle fibers apart, inch by inch.
The agony pierced to the marrow.
The light and shadow before his eyes shattered in an instant, becoming utter darkness.
Thud!
Sasuke's body slammed into the ground and rolled more than ten meters before hitting a tree and coming to a stop.
"Cough... cough, cough!"
He lay facedown and coughed violently, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
It was as though all the strength had been drained from his body.
Waves of needle-sharp pain stabbed through his legs, leaving him without even the strength to stand.
It failed.
It failed completely and utterly.
His seemingly perfect theory had been smashed to pieces by practice.
Sasuke lay on the cold ground, his chest heaving.
His wild joy and confidence vanished without a trace, like the receding tide.
In their place were agony that pierced to the marrow and blank bewilderment.
Why?
He could not understand.
These powers were so similar in nature. Why would they repel each other so violently?
Where had he gone wrong?
The theory? Or the method?
He had thought he had found a shortcut that transcended this world's system.
Instead, reality had dealt him the loudest and most painful slap in the face.
He simply lay there, letting the cold mountain wind blow over his sweat-soaked body.
The tearing agony slowly faded, turning into a dull, pervasive ache.
Humiliation.
A sense of humiliation deeper than being called an idiot by Kuwajima, deeper than watching Zenitsu unconsciously perform Thunderclap and Flash, engulfed him.
Because this time, he had been defeated by the very "mind" he took such pride in.
A long time passed.
With trembling arms, he barely managed to prop up his upper body.
He lowered his head and looked at his legs, which were still twitching slightly.
Then he slowly opened his right hand.
His palm was empty.
Yet he felt as though he could still sense Chidori's violent, pure lightning flickering there.
That was power that belonged entirely to him.
But Breathing Styles...
A vague thought quietly surfaced in his jumbled mind.
Had he... overcomplicated the problem again?
He had been trying to "fuse" them all along.
Trying to crudely force the two powers together.
But what if...
They did not need to be fused at all?
What if the role of a Breathing Style was merely... to support?
Before you continue