Seeing endless grassy plains and rolling hills stretching out beyond the horizon, Baam couldn’t help but show an expression of wonderment as he muttered, “It’s like an endless ocean of green…”.
Amused by the boy’s utterance, Vahn ruffled Baam’s hair as he explained, “This place is a spherical sub-texture with a diameter of two-thousand-kilometers. Though it might appear boundless, if you run towards the horizon long enough, you’ll eventually find yourself back in this exact spot.”
As the concept of circumnavigation didn’t really exist within the Tower, even Laure and Hwa Ryun were marginally surprised by Vahn’s words. It was a little strange to consider you would end up in the same point after going in a ‘straight’ line, but, understanding the concept of a sphere, it didn’t take them long to rationalize the concept. Baam, however, cocked his head to the side, confusion and amazement visible in his glistening golden eyes as he asked, “Is that true…!?”
Rather than try and convince him through words, Vahn smiled in response to Baam’s words before pulling out an inordinately large bow from his Inventory. This confused all three of them, but, after he loosed an arrow made of resplendent golden light towards the horizon, they quickly understood what he was trying to convey. Vahn had effectively put the arrow into ‘orbit’, so, after a few seconds had passed, a golden streak of light could be seen from the opposing horizon, passing over their heads to continue along its journey. (A/N: The arrow isn’t moving at lightspeed, just very quickly.)
For a variety of reasons, the trio was extremely surprised by Vahn’s casual demonstration. Laure, in particular, had already calculated the circumference of the sub-texture to be greater than 9,000km, so, to see Vahn fire an arrow capable of traveling such distances with extreme ease, he couldn’t help feeling as though the man was a monster. As for Hwa Ryun, she had an expression similar to Baam, an excited smile on her face as her left eye glimmered in expectation and excitement.
Preempting any questions, Vahn raised his hand, gesturing for silence as he said, “I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions later. For now, allow me to give you a demonstration of the type of control I’ll be expecting from you in the future. Though it will likely take several years, I’m confident each of you will be able to reach this point if you continue making an effort…”
Even before he had finished speaking, Vahn began to produce numerous Baangs behind his back, each manifesting like tiny stars until their numbers had exceeded a thousand. Then, with a casual smile on his face, Vahn created links between the Baangs, shaping them into a massive magic circle that radiated a tremendous amount of pressure.
Thanks to his inordinately high Shinsu Resistance, Baam was largely unaffected by the suffocating pressure that had spread through the surroundings. Laure and Hwa Ryun, however, immediately fell to their knees, the former nearly vomiting on the spot while the latter only remained conscious due to a fervent desire to see what her God would do next. Fortunately for them both, though the latter was a little disappointed, Vahn promptly allowed the Shinsu to scatter into the environment, smiling as he began to explain the basics of energy manipulation and the structure of magical circles…
—
While Vahn’s class was progressing relatively peacefully, other classes, with the exception of Phae’s, were far more chaotic. This included Yoruichi’s, which had Nare and Shibisu running laps around the first outer ring, Fenrir’s, which involved direct combat training, Gandr’s, which involved swinging a weighted sword a total of 10,000 times, and, most surprisingly, Hinata’s, which had both Endorsi and Anak laying on the ground after a very one-sided spar.
Though her personality and appearance were templated from Vahn’s expectations, Hinata, at least for the time being, was still a direct extension of the former. This meant she had complete access to The Path, the system functions, and all of Vahn’s Innate abilities. Because of this, even without the Byakugan, she had complete awareness of her surroundings, and, though she was unable to use the ‘true’ Gentle Fist, that didn’t stop her from manipulating Shinsu as if it was normal Water Elemental Energy.
By gathering Shinsu into her palms and at the tips of her fingers, Hinata was able to casually divert the attacks of the Princesses. This created considerable gaps in their defenses, and, thanks to her far greater speed, flexibility, and experience, Hinata was able to accurately strike each of their pressure points, stymying the flow of Shinsu within their bodies and causing their limbs to go numb.
After gritting her teeth in frustration for several seconds, Anak managed to roll over to her stomach before attempting to push herself up. Endorsi, however, just flailed her arms and legs a few times in frustration as she exclaimed, “This isn’t fair at all! Where do all these absurdly powerful people keep coming from!? How can such a timid brat hit like a train!?”
Hearing Endorsi’s remark, Hinata adopted an apologetic smile, but, before she could say anything, Anak was the one to answer, “Shut up, you stupid Ghost Pepper…this is supposed to be training. If you are going to keep whining, go somewhere else. As for me…I can keep going…!”
Spurred onward by her own remark, the muscles in Anak’s calves and thighs bulged slightly as she leaped toward Hinata with explosive speed. She wasn’t able to use Shinsu right now, but, thanks to the natural strength of her body, she could perform feats many higher-ranked Regulars wouldn’t be able to perform even with Shinsu.
Though she wasn’t very skilled at hand-to-hand combat, Anak attempted to punch towards Hinata’s chest with her arm fully extended. This was easily side-stepped by Hinata, but, having expected this, Anak firmly planted her foot into the ground, stopping her forward momentum and allowing her to sweep to the side with her tail. This was enough to catch Hinata by surprise, eliciting a slight raising of the brows from the short-haired Hyuga.
Unfortunately for Anak, she managed to use the same side-stepped motion to evade the tail sweep as well, pivoting on her foot and performing a half-spin to create just enough distance to avoid the attack entirely. Then, in the gap created by Anak’s own tail sweep, Hinata stepped towards her back in an instant, a thin layer of bluish-white Shinsu gathered within her palm as she impacted the body of the green-skinned girl with enough force to send her tumbling nearly one-hundred-meters.
Seemingly intending to take advantage of Hinata’s focus on Anak, Endorsi appeared right behind the former, her ghostly eyes blazing with an eerie light as she mused, “Gotcha~!”
Demonstrating the reward for hubris, Hinata managed to duck under Endorsi’s attempted chop to the back of her neck. In the same motion, she spun on her heel with impeccable grace, extending her palm towards the ghost-eyed Princess’ abdomen as she planted both feet squarely against the ground. This caused the soil, dirt, and grass around her to sink slightly, but, as most of the force was expelled through her palm, it was Endorsi who was sent crashing through a nearby tree, smashing the thick and sturdy wood into countless fragments of mulch.
Since she could always heal the duo from virtually any injury, including death, Hinata wasn’t holding back as much as she ought to. Endorsi and Anak both had inordinately strong bodies, even without enhancements, so she was trying to draw out their latent potential by sending waves of nourishing Source Energy into their body with each strike. This allowed her to effectively ‘temper’ their bodies, and, though it was bound to cause them some pain, they would invariably become a lot stronger by the time the training had completed…
Feeling as though most of her ribs had been broken, Endorsi curled up into a fetal position, tears swelling in her eyes as she gnashed her teeth. Hinata was a lot stronger than she had expected, so much so that she couldn’t help but wonder which of them was supposed to be a Princess of Jahad. Still, this didn’t mean she was going to give up, so, after setting her bones and treating her injuries with Shinsu, Endorsi rose to her feet with a determined glimmer in her ghost-like eyes.
With ‘vision’ that extended for hundreds of meters in the surroundings, Hinata immediately turned to Endorsi the moment she attempted to stand. She could see the resolution in the woman’s eyes, so, after giving her a few seconds to recover, she leaned forward slightly before turning into a blur that instantaneously appeared right in front of Endorsi.
Having only ever seen such speed displayed by Rankers, Endorsi felt a mixture of helplessness and indignation as she attempted to cross her arms in a defensive posture. This still left plenty of gaps, however, so, after squatting low with one arm pointed forward and the other pointed back, Hinata muttered, “Eight-Trigrams…two palms…!”
The moment she heard Hinata’s words, Endorsi felt two sharp pains, similar to being stabbed, near her lower left abdomen and her recently healed rib cage. Then, without any interval between them, Hinata, added, “Four palms…!”, this time striking two points on her guard, an area above her navel, and a point near her forehead. This left her feeling extremely disoriented, her mind in a complete state of disarray as Hinated uttered, “Eight palms…!”
—
Since Shibisu and Nare were relatively normal people, Yoruichi had them performing a very similar routine to the one that Tsubaki had developed for Lili many years prior. This included considerable amounts of stretching, lots of running, and, though it could be destructive on the joints, she forced them to wear weighted compression suits beneath their clothes.
As could be expected, even moving around with weighted clothing wasn’t easy, so, after running for nearly an hour straight, Shibisu and Nare had collapsed numerous times. Unfortunately, each time they were on the verge of fainting or giving up, Yoruichi would appear next to them, a sadistic smile on her face as she placed her palm against the backs. Immediately after that, almost as if they had received a rush of adrenaline combined with an electrical shock, the duo would be forcibly returned to consciousness before being chased by the maniacal woman with cat-like features.
Though it didn’t aid her in any way, Nare spent half the training session loudly crying as she did her best to try and flee from her violent tormentor. She hated physical exertion, and, though she knew it would be better for her in the long run, her entire body was already sore from simply wearing the compression suit. She was certain that, once she took off the suit, her entire body was going to be one giant bruise.
Unfortunately, despite her protests, Yoruichi didn’t allow her to quit, stating things like, “This is what you decided…” and “It will get easier once you get used to it…” before promptly giving her a ‘shock’. As a result, Nare was forced to continue running until her tears had completely dried up; her lament quickly turning to anger which promptly developed into indignation and a strong desire to get back at the hateful woman toying with her like a tiny mouse cornered by a cat.
What the young blonde didn’t realize was that she was playing directly into Yoruichi’s hand. It was actually very common for new trainees to hate their mentors, especially when physical training was involved, but, after a few weeks, most of the resentment would fade away. In its place, the trainees would grow increasingly confident in their abilities, and, though they might hold a bit of a grudge, they would invariably grow to respect and appreciate the efforts their mentors had put into pushing them beyond their limits.
Becoming truly powerful required an inordinate amount of effort, far more than most people were willing, or able, to put in. This barred most people from attaining their true potential, as, by design, it was a lot easier to make excuses to justify your weakness than it was to overcome your limits. As a result, only the truly determined and ambitious were able to reach the pinnacle; a pinnacle that all people, with varying degrees of effort, were able to achieve.
Though she didn’t have a true Ego of her own just yet, Yoruichi was more than capable of forming intentions based on the nascent Ego derived from her Template. She was intending to follow after Vahn when he separated from the ‘kids’ on the 20th Floor, so, until then, she wanted to push both Nare and Shibisu beyond their limits. She would help them lay a foundation that would allow them to become two of the greatest Scouts the Tower had ever seen, and, though they might hate her in the beginning, she knew they would be extremely grateful in the long run.
With this in mind, Yoruichi began mixing in surprise attacks and feints whenever she thought the duo were slacking off. After all, a Scout needed to be fully aware of their surroundings at all times, so, even if they were mentally and physically exhausted, she expected them to react appropriately. To that end, Yoruichi performed a diving kick towards Shibisu, striking him in the small of his back with a vicious smile on her face as she shouted, “You’re wide open…!”.
(A/N: Alternate Titles: ‘*Casual Flex*’,’You’re in my range…!’,’I’m doing this for your sake! Hahaha~!’)
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