Chapter 15 – The Family Finals
The family was well aware of the rivalries here. Their dad and Kousei had a score to settle from the last tournament. had lost to their dad in the final match for the championship. The family could feel the tension in the air. It felt thick enough to cut with a knife as the combatants readied themselves for their matches, each of them started to warm up. The air was thick with anticipation a well as tension. There was also a hint of anxiety and impatience too as they prepared to begin.
Lee was up right off the bat and he was ready. But, he couldn't shake off the suspicion that there was going to be more to this fight than what he was expecting. He entered the arena a minute later prepared to win. Sam seemed the same way. "3, 2, 1, GO!" They started at each other with amazing speed. Nanoha now had decided to stop thinking about how it was being done due to the fact that she felt light headed every time she thought about it. Now she just put it down in "The things you can't explain," category that most people have in the backs of their minds for the unexplainable. Lee had made the first hit with a spin and swing combo from behind. Sam then countered with a backlash which Lee defended against only to find that at the last second, Sam pulled back his sword a bit and changed it into a side ways swing which hit. This type of thing continued for most the battle, then Lee used an accelerated SHUNPO that his dad had taught him to get behind Sam for a finishing thrust. To his surprise, Sam also sped up at the last second and dodged. Then he aimed for Lee's feet with a round house sword sweep, which Lee avoided by speeding backwards. The crowd was roaring with excitement.
Same suddenly smirked, "So, you want to take this up a notch." Lee smirked back, "Why not." They both called a time out for a minute and went to take off their training weights. Lee took the ones off his wrists and ankles but decided to leave the weight on his arms and legs. His father told him to do this so the sudden increase didn't tear apart the muscle tissue. So they both then went back out to the arena to continue. Sam charged first, and he was much faster now. Lee who had no time to counter attack dodged it and to his surprise, he sped out of the way so fast that he lost control and fell over. Sam thought it was an accident and proceeded to attack again. Lee, who knew the truth decided to end the match quickly to see how fast he could go. He got up quickly and dodged the attack. He then appeared on the other side of the arena. Everyone looked astonished at this. Then, with another burst of speed, he shot to the other side of the arena. The arena floor shook under him with the sheer speed at which he was moving. He then tried a full out dash and stopped right in front of Sam, with his blade to Sam's throat and Sam's sword broken in half. Sam looked shocked at what just happened. Lee then left the arena. It was then marked as a win for Lee even though he left the arena.
The crowd of family members looked stupefied after this unexpected win for Lee. It was now Sarah's turn to go up against her favorite cousin, rival, and Kendo protégé, Rebecca. She was ready; they had both decided to take off their weights before the fight. They wanted to go all out at the beginning to see who was truly stronger. They started in a flurry of sword swings. Without their weights on, they were moving at blazing speeds; almost as fast as Lee went in his battle. You could hear the crack from the tiles on the arena floor from them kicking off them at high speeds throughout the dojo. The family was roaring with excitement. This was the best tournament they had seen since the one 23 years ago were the story goes the force of the battle created an earthquake that had destroyed the arena and the surrounding area, including the house, though that was a story for another time.
They were going at it; both with all their restraints off were fighting full force. Chrono was getting a headache trying to watch. Nanoha decided that he would probably be better off if he transformed where all of his abilities would then match those of the people he was watching. Chrono took her advice and went outside. He transformed and flew up to a high window to watch. He could see it clearly now though it still took some effort. It was hard for him to imagine that this was a fight between two preteen girls without magic. The girls kept on going at it. One hit after the other, they kept clashing at high speeds. The sounds the swords made when they collided sounded like thunder. It was anyone's guess why neither sword had broken yet. The truth was, in order to keep the match going, Sarah had infused both swords with some magic so they couldn't break easily, a skill referred to by Lance as enchanting that he had showed her how to do not too long ago.
Rebecca and Sarah were commenting on how good the other had got when Rebecca started to take a weird stance. She put her sword out to one side and held it with one hand. Then she put her legs right near each other. They were lined up so evenly that to Sarah, it looked like one leg, as she was right in front of her. Then she bent down. John realized what it was. He looked terrified and furious. He marched over to his brother Dan, who was Rebecca's dad, and started yelling at him. John, "Surly you didn't teach her that move." Dan, "I did, so what." John, "You know that move could kill them both. How could you be so stupid?" Dan sweat dropped, "To be honest, I didn't really teach it, just demonstrated it once. I didn't expect her to master it with only that, but she did, to a tee."
Rebecca, "I am sorry!" She pushed off at such speed that there was a loud boom. She then jumped up. "SHERIN TATSUMAKI!" She was now coming down at an insane speed. It looked like she was diving at Sarah from above. She then started spinning in a weird fashion. Now her blade resembled the top of a drill-head. Sarah smiled briefly, then did something equally as weird. She extended her sword arm out as far as possible so it made the sword's reach as much as possible. She then put her other arm straight in the opposite and made her hand vertical to the ground. Her father and everyone in the audience looked on with curiosity. John had no idea what Sarah was doing. He hadn't taught her anything like this, and hadn't seen her practicing it either. "ZERO YUREIGENZAI!" She suddenly made three quick steps that none of them recognized, and then disappeared on the spot and at the same time appeared on the other side of the dojo. In mid air now, Rebecca was frozen. All over her protective armor, there was what looked like burn marks. Also, there was a huge slash mark and Rebecca's sword was cut straight in half, the long way. Then, when the sword hit the ground with Rebecca, it splintered into a million pieces. Another thing was that Sarah looked as if nothing had happened. The final aspect was that the arena looked like it had been cut in half. There was a huge crack between where Sarah had started to where Sarah had reappeared, though she was now kneeling and breathing very heavily, clearly having been drained by what she had just done.
Rebecca was out cold for about two hours. The tournament was having an extended intermission to repair the arena. Sarah was waiting at Rebecca's side along with Lee and their Dad as well as Rebecca's dad, Dan. When Rebecca awoke, she looked around at the people gathered at her bedside. Then she stopped at Sarah, "So I guess you won." Sarah, "I guess I did." Both girls then started to giggle which turned into very loud laughing. Everyone cheered up at this. No one had asked Sarah about what happened in the match due to her worry about Rebecca. But now the question popped up from Rebecca, "So what did you exactly do there? I only noticed that you stuck your sword out and your expression went to looking serious. I think that was when I blacked out." Sarah, "It was a move called ZERO YUREIGENZAI." John, "Where did you pick up on a move like that." She looked at her dad, "I made it up. It was based off your ZERO TENSHI. I heard most of the mechanics for Zero Tenshi while you were teaching it to Lee and the finer points when I asked you about it and I saw it enough times that I came up with an idea for a similar technique. Frankly I didn't like the idea of not being able to do it because of something like bad ankles, so I modified it to make it work with people who didn't have ankle strength. Due to this, the move pattern is different. It requires a special series of twelve steps in all for the full effect. But you do enter Zero Time on the third step, though that part took me forever to figure out. The other nine are to make up for the imbalance you get when you enter Zero Time. I noticed that whenever you guy's entered ZERO TENSHI and reappeared, it looked like there was enormous pressure exerted on the ankle for balance. The nine steps are to maintain your balance in place of using your ankles. After those steps, you can stop anywhere. Unfortunately, due to the number of steps, you only have one chance to attack. And it has to be on the tenth step and must be a slash. The tenth step is the most important one; it is a twist of insane power from the top of your toes. This is what gives you your main balance. The 11th and 12th steps are to re-balance you in the other direction after the 10th one. During that step, the sword is out at full length and as you prepare to do the 10th step, you retract it a bit, which gives you some acceleration. This is the most important part; at this point, you make your slash. Due to the intense pressure put on the sword from the final turn, it heats up which gives it extra power. This slash is one of immense power and accuracy. I cut through the sword long-ways on purpose to slow it down a lot so it didn't severely injure Rebecca or worse. And that is all there is too it."
Everyone looked at Sarah. All of them were amazed and in awed into silence at what she had created. Even her dad had to look amazed and impressed at what she had done. He immediately realized how she had solved the problem, and in truth it was something that he would have never come up with, for it was in some ways something only child would have. While John would have looked into a solution by training up to a point where he could negate a downside, Sarah had basically compensated by trying to counter the problems one by one, almost in a brute force fashion until she got a working solution. John likened her method of dealing with the forces required to trying to balance a chair on just its back legs, teetering it lightly back and forth right at its balance point, it was that kind of razor fine line that this technique walked, and frankly it was amazing that she had been able to do it.
John, "So what is the bad side to it. Zero Tenshi, just as you said puts an insane amount of pressure and force on the users ankles." Sarah answered, "The wrist. Due to the fact that the sword is all the way extended for balance during the majority of the attack, the wrists have much more pressure exerted on it than normal. Also, all the pressure from the slash also goes to the wrists." John smiled, "I thought so. Well Sarah, I must say I am impressed and proud to call you my daughter. Who would of thought you would come up with something like this?" Sarah, "Well, actually came up with this move to keep up with Lee and Sora. I didn't want to be left in the dust for weak ankles and the inability to do ZERO TENSHI. So, to over come that obstacle, I created another way to use Zero Time that worked for me, the ZERO YUREIGENZAI, though all the fundamental aspects of it are from your ZERO TENSHI, such as the infinite acceleration you get from the special step, that was the most difficult part to figure out. If I hadn't watched Lee training, I wouldn't have been able to make my own version, and I'm still not quite sure how it's done yet, but I sort of was able to feel it out after watching you guys practice it enough. And I have to be honest, that was only the second time I was able to pull it off. I only got it down last night." John smiled, "Well Sarah, I hope you will tell me more about how to do it, I can already think of some uses I may have for it. ZERO TENSHI, though it can incorporate slashes, puts all of its direct power into a thrust so it only hits a single point, yours is a slash so it can hit in a much bigger way. Even if you get only one hit, that is all you would need." Sarah smiled, "Sure, when we get home."
The arena was finally finished being repaired. Their uncle Kousei had put the newer steel plated tiles under the traditional floor to make it more durable, though why he had them around and hadn't used them first was beyond them. Now it was time for Sora and Paul's fight. Everyone was excited for this fight. In the last tournament, both had been knocked out simultaneously and both lost as a result, and for their official college Kendo records, they were also tied. The tension that had built up over the years was immense. Sora had taken off his preliminary set of weights just like Lee had except he did it straight from the start. He took his stance. It was for a strong assault move. The only thing about this move was that it was slow compared to the rest of the style. But if it made contact, it was an almost sure hit K.O. He waited for Paul to make the first move. Seeing the invite, Paul charged at him at a fast pace. Then Sora tried his move, which Paul dodged with ease. Then Sora spun around at an insane speed. He then tried to sweep slash Paul's feet, but he jumped up and tried for a slam from above. Sora dodged and tried a thrust that was equally as ineffective.
This went on for almost 15 minutes. Neither one of them had managed to hit the others sword let alone the person themselves. It was clear to both that this match, with such extraordinary reflexes, would be decided by their speed. They seemed almost even. Then Sora disappeared for a second. He reappeared behind Paul and hit him with a downward slash to the shoulder. The crowed cheered for the fact that the first contact was made. Then Paul stuck his sword under his shoulder and stabbed Sora with a surprise reverse thrust. Then they started their real battle. The swords started to collide, and they collided. They were going so fast that even Lee had trouble seeing them. Well the swords were. To everyone's amazement, the two combatants were almost perfectly still during the fight. Then, Sora stepped back and then charged for a full force thrust. He was countered by another reverse thrust by Paul. They then went into a full high-speed bout. Most of the family was now having trouble keeping track of the combatants. Then, Paul jumped back. Alarmed by this, Sora followed suit to be safe.
"Lets bring this up a notch," said Paul. He took a different stance now. His sword was directly in front of him. He was perfectly straight except for his arms, which were holding onto the sword. "Okay, this should be fun." Paul ran at an insane speed towards Sora and then he just stopped right in front of him. Before he had time to settle himself, Paul did an insanely powerful slash and sweep combo. Sora could only block with his sword. Unfortunately, his swords top 2 inches splintered off from the force and the slash hit him on the left shoulder. It stung, but due to the slash being significantly reduced by Sora's sword, it wasn't serious. "Let's see what you can do this time with that broken sword." Paul started again. But this time, Sora was ready for him. He took the same stance as Paul and charged up at insane speeds. They started to circle each other at an insane speed. The air almost looked like it was getting sucked out of the space in-between them and started to get electrified with static now. Sora made the first attack and missed. Then Paul did the same except something different happened with his attack. Somehow, the static that had built up seemed to be drawn towards his sword so when he attacked, even though Sora blocked, his hands went numb. He wasn't called the Lightning God for nothing. Nanoha was completely speechless at what they were seeing, for if it weren't for them already checking, they would have claimed that Paul was using magic to control the electricity he was seemingly generating with static force. Truthfully at this point, the rest of them, Lee and Sarah included didn't have the foggiest about how their elder cousin was doing that, but they watched on.
Paul swung down again, and Sora felt his hands go numb even after blocking. This happened a few more times with Sora not seeing a good way to block it. Sora saw only one way to finish this. He pulled his sword back so the hilt drew level with his face. Thinking he was doing a special Kendo thrust, Paul prepared to do the same. He charged at Sora at super speeds. Sora at the last second disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the arena. Paul suddenly fell to the ground with his sword cut into small pieces. Sora left the arena, stupefying the audience with the show of the ZERO TENSHI, or what they could see of it. Chrono came back into the building. He found a way to enhance his abilities without fully transforming. He did a half-release and summoned the hilt that he put in his pocket. Now he had the same senses as he did transformed but he still looked normal to anyone looking.
Now was the final battle of the first round, John vs. . They got into the arena and started straight off. It took their dad only 20 seconds to knock Kousei out cold and he did it without using ZERO TENSHI. He just ran behind him and hit him in the back with a nice slash. It was over so fast that everyone seemed kind of bored. Even to Chrono, Sakura and Nanoha who could barley comprehend what these people could do found it anti-climactic. The only thing interesting about the match was the scar it left on the floor. John had moved so fast, he tore apart the steel shingles with the shockwave he produced from the sudden acceleration. They had to have another intermission for half an hour why the ring was being fixed. During this time, Lee went up to Sakura and asked her to put some barrier on the arena floor so it wouldn't break. The tournament was being delayed too much. It was already four in the afternoon. She said she would try but there wouldn't be any guarantee's. She didn't do barriers very often so she didn't know how strong she could make it. But she could make basic barriers without creating a magic circle so all would be okay. The next fight was a sibling bout, Lee vs. Sarah. In fact, the entire tournament was down to just Lee's family. Everyone else looked on in awe of this family's amazing abilities.
Lee and Sarah were looking forward to their fight. They had never sparred with each other so it would be interesting. Meanwhile, Sakura, Chrono and Nanoha were in a complex situation. They didn't want either of them to lose but they also wanted them both to win but they didn't want to hurt the others feelings by cheering for the other one. In the end, they went up to Lee and Sarah and told them to have a good match and to try and not hurt the other one too badly. The arena was fixed 15 minutes later. Now it had reinforced steel I-beams for support (wherever he had been able to find those) and Sakura had put a barrier around it to protect it even more. When the time came, they both entered the arena and took their stances.
They started off as fast as they could go. Then, they collided in the middle with a thunderous bang. It shook the entire building. They started attacking each other full force at top speed. It was intense. Now even Nanoha was having a hard time seeing them. Each of their collisions sounded like thunder. It was a good thing that there wasn't a judge trying to maintain the rules. He wouldn't be able to see the combatants as they sped around the arena. They continued this for almost half an hour. Then, Sarah tried a jump and swing from behind that Lee saw and dodged. Then he countered with a seep and slash combo, which Sarah also avoided.
They were locked in intense high speed combat. Each of them had to try hard not to use their magic. If anything, they were more suppressing it than holding down an urge. Their magic automatically tried to help them when they were in a bind. This though was a tournament and would kind of be like cheating if they did so, so they held it back. Then, Sarah tried using ZEHI TENSHO to try and immobilize him. He countered with a move his dad taught him called TEN TOTATSU. The move started out as a full speed slash. Then, halfway through the slash, you jumped and turned in mid air doing an upward slash to your opponent. Then, with the force coming down, you would do another slash combo. Once on the way down and another right after you landed. For the one after you landed, you would rebound from the fall and use that force as extra power. This was the most powerful and important part of this 4-part slash form. When Sarah tried to spin around Lee, he did the first slash which she blocked, then he did the upwards slash going into the air, skimming Sarah's sword on the way up. Then he did the downward slash, which she blocked but lost her balance. Then he did the final slash. It collided with Sarah's sword but the sheer power of it knocked Sarah back a few feet and to the ground.
She got up, apparently shocked after the last attack. "Lee, I know there is only one way for me to beat you so I hope you are prepared." She took her stance. Her sword was all the way extended now and her other arm was all the way back with the hand flipped vertically to the ground. Lee saw what she was doing and in order to counteract her ZERO YUREIGENZAI, he drew the hilt of his sword level with his face and put his left hand on the tip of the blade. They both launched and disappeared. During the one moment they prepared to attack was all anyone saw. Both entered Zero time. Sarah stuck with her super-powered Slash, which collided with Lee's super charged thrust.
Lee and Sarah reappeared, but to the audience it looked like they had never disappeared, it merely looked like they vanished and reappeared on opposite ends of the arena at the same time. At first, no one knew who had beaten whom. Then, Sarah's sword broke into millions of pieces and she fell to the ground like dust. She had many slashes on her and she was out cold. It was obvious what had happened to anyone who knew about these attacks. Sarah's attack was a one shot deal so when it was canceled by Lee's thrust in the initial encounter, she couldn't attack again but Lee's attack allows the user to slash their opponents with many additional slashes so he took advantage of this to attack while she couldn't counter. It was obvious that Lee's ZERO TENSHI had beaten Sarah's attack. But due to the insane power in the first collision from the initial hits, Lee's sword was broken in half. Due to this, all of Sarah's cuts were very shallow. This relived Lee who then left the arena to go and lie down.
Even with all the extra protection the arena had, there was still a large scorch straight across the arena from the middle where they had collided. They had to clean up the arena before the next fight could proceed. Sarah woke up in the infirmary tent right outside the arena. She blinked and asked Sakura who was right beside her, "So how bad was it." Sakura, "Pretty bad from what I could tell. You had wounds all over your body and you came out of the attack unconscious." Sarah, "That's funny, I don't feel bad, in fact, I feel great." Sakura, "Your brother is responsible for that too. He came in with you before lying down and healed you by magic once the nurse was gone. He seems to have done a pretty good job of it too." Sarah felt good so the two girls headed back to the arena. Even though she was perfectly fine, Sakura insisted she stay in a wheelchair so she didn't get awkward questions about her full recovery. Sarah agreed and then they left for the arena.
The next fight was on they were anxious to get under way. The combatants starring daggers at each other even though they were father and son, the crowd restless and on the edge of their seats, their Uncle who owned the place on the phone with the insurance company and Lee and his friends and sister waiting to see what would happen. They started a few minutes later in a surprisingly slow manor. At least Lee thought they were going very slowly until he heard gasps and awes and all sorts of other murmuring, and thus was very confused until he heard someone in the crowd say "Where are they mom, I can't see them." Chrono also seemed to be lacking in sight as well, "Lee, where did they go, the arena's empty." Lee looked confusingly at him, "Look, there right there and going kind of slowly. Kind of hard to miss." Sarah looked at him strangely, "Lee, are you alright?" Lee, "Yes I am. Its you that–" he stopped there. Something dawned on him; everyone said that at the beginning that they had just disappeared. He looked closely at the arena and he saw it. Wherever they were moving to, they were leaving faint burn marks where they had been. They were too faint to be noticed normally but Lee's exceptional SHOU allowed him to see it clearly. But he wondered to himself, "Had it always been this good?" He wasn't sure why but now he was noticing every little detail. It then dawned on him exactly why he was the only one who could see them. He suddenly figured it out, "The reason you don't see them is because they are moving at a speed that goes beyond your perception. In other words, they are too fast for your eyes to register. My father told me about this once, that you didn't need to be faster than light to exit a person's sight, just faster than the brain could process an image." Everyone looked taken back at this bit of incredible news. Chrono suggested it would have been more probable to say that they just turned invisible. Nanoha couldn't understand it either. She was pouring all of her magic into her senses and still couldn't see anything. Lee then asked why he could see it. Nanoha looked questioningly at him, "I don't know. You are not using magic. That is for certain. I sense nothing." It then came to his mind. Something his father said just popped out of no-where. "Using ZERO TENSHI also has potential training benefits. Using it multiple times in a short amount of time could help hyper develop your senses quickly while they attune to working in such a different environment as Zero Time is. Just don't do it on purpose due to the risks of the attack. Zero Tenshi cannot be used consecutively in the same fight without serious repercussions." It must have happened after his last fight. Even though they were spaced out, he had used the attack at least 3 times that day. He must of broken the limit after he went into Zero Time combat with his sister. It would explain his enhanced sense of sight and hearing at least, but what about this new sensation he felt.
Meanwhile, on the stage, Sora and his father were dueling it out. They were fighting at insane speeds, even by their standards but to each other looked normal if not slow. This didn't help them much due to the fact they could only move as fast as they could see. It eventually got confusing enough to drive them to go a little bit faster. They were talking on the arena floor, but at the speed they were going it was barely above a whisper, and only they and Lee could hear it at all. Their speed coupled with the speed of their voices surpassed what normal people could hear. "So when did you pick up on ZAE SHUNPO Sora," their father asked. "I saw you do it once at home and practiced ever since. It took a bit of practice but I got the hang of it." Their father looked impressed. Then he noticed something in the corner of his eyes. Though he knew they were going too fast for most to even find traces of their battle, he saw Lee following their movements and it seemed that he was doing it effortlessly. He was surprised for a moment and then realized he must of broken the limit with his last battle. He turned his attention to his other son who was still striking him. He realized that while he looked at Lee for a second, Sora had sped up and tricked him to do the same to the point that Sora's sword no longer seemed slow to him. John was about to reach his maximum speed. He knew that Sora wouldn't be as fast as that so he sped up even more. That said, to his surprise, Sora matched him. They reached what John thought was their maximum speed but Sora went further. He was going faster now. Even Lee now had to struggle to keep up with the two combatants at this point. The crowed could now see that there was a battle going on. Their speed had hit a point that the METAL arena floor WITH Sakura's protection was tearing itself up from nothing more than pure friction.
Sora and his father were tearing the arena to shreds. John was having a bit of difficulty now. He couldn't keep up with his oldest son's speed. He was going to lose at this rate. Back up top with Lee and his friends, the crowds looked on in awe as they saw the ring seemingly tear itself up. Lee's friends looked on in shock. Nanoha was having another breakdown with her bad understanding about how any of this was possible. Lee looked observantly. He used some magic and once again found it easier to keep track of them, and with that, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. The bottom of both Sora's and his dad's feet were emitting something very, very faintly, like an immensly dim light. He couldn't tell what it was. It couldn't be magic cause besides the fact that his own father had it too; it just didn't feel like magic to Lee, It felt more like, for the lack of a better word, primal, which was the only way that Lee could describe it to himself. The battle was on a whole new level. In fact, if he looked closely, both of their swords and even their entire bodies were ever so faintly coated in this mysterious light, "Wait, he mentioned this to me the other day, that inner energy stuff. But isn't that just supposed to be a spiritual thing? Is there more to this then I thought?"
Both the combatants were nearing their limit. Sora was going to win at this rate so John braced himself for what he was about to do. He held his sword straight across his chest holding the handle and his palm on the blades end. John, "Prepare yourself Sora." He then took three steps forward and vanished. The crowd who was watching the ring seemingly void of fighting got a big shock when the two fighters reappeared out of nowhere. Sora, "It was close dad." He fell to the floor. It had 4 seemingly shallow slash marks, one on each limb. Their father then walked over and carried him fireman style to the infirmary. The ring was completely destroyed now down to the framework so it had been decided that the final match would be held at his real training dojo where their uncle taught his students a few miles up the road from his houses' drive way in 2 hours.
Back in the infirmary, Sora woke up in a bed, his dad sitting right next to him. It had been decided that only Lee and Sarah would go to see them as it was their family and there wasn't much room in the room anyway. Sarah was first to burst out with questions like what happened or how or any other question a normal person would ask in the situation. Lee, knowing that those questions could be answered later told her to go outside for a minute and he would explain for them later. This was more because Lee had a few questions of his own he needed answered. When Sarah left the room, Lee did two things. One was telepathically tell Sarah and Sakura to combine their abilities to make a healing barrier so that the two would heal but not find out. They made the invisible barrier but told him that it wouldn't last more than 20 minutes so they were going to have to make them heal quickly. Lee knew the questions he had would keep them occupied so it didn't matter.
Lee took a deep breath, "Okay, I need a few things explained." Lee already knew due to the look he got during the battle from his father that he knew Lee saw the whole thing. Lee, "First off, what exactly is ZAE SHUNPO and what was that glow I saw from you guys?" John smiled, he had been right about Lee being able to see them, "Okay, to answer the first one, ZAE SHUNPO is an advance form of regular SHUNPO using your energy as a boost. The way it is done relates to your second question. I've been trying to explain it to you for a while now, but you haven't seemed to be able to grasp the concept yet, but I think you're probably ready now. The glow is best described as a manifestation of instinct. It can be focused by anyone who is, in a phrase, able to break the limit. This means going beyond normal human limitation, which is not an easy thing. Out of everyone here, probably only those who made it to the finals and a few who I know didn't participate have reached that level. Here I would say about only 25 or so out of all the 300 relatives who came that know how to fight are at that level. I've been calling it the inner energy when trying to explain it to you because I thought that would be the easiest for you to understand, but it has many different names from many different cultures around the world and believe it to be different things depending on the context. Some call it Spiritual Power, some call it Chi energy, some call it energy from within, some call it reisatsu and still others call it Chakra, but most Japanese martial artists and swordsmen call it Ki. This stands for Killing Intent, though nowadays it only means the emotions of competition and innate survival."
Lee, "Ok, I understand that, but how does survival instincts let you move super fast?" John had to pause for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase this in a way for Lee to understand, "Okay, I think I understand. You aren't thinking about this right. Ki is the energy that comes from such feelings, but it isn't some abstract concept. I'm not trying to say that its some form of mental fortitude, Ki is an actual form of energy that exists in every living thing. That energy so to speak can be harnessed by a person to do many extraordinary things, but at its base, technically every living thing uses Ki in some manner subconsciously. Things you might have heard of like the strength from an adrenaline rush or a brief sixth sense of danger are all things people sometimes use Ki unconsciously for, but that's just in its unrefined state. With training and mental fortitude, it is something that can be harnessed and controlled, and with that control opens up a whole new level of what is possible. One expression of it is SHUNPO, which among its other components requires a basic enhancement of Ki to your body, specifically your legs, in order to enhance your speed. In fact, the primary use of Ki is in fact its use in reinforcing the body, allowing a person to increase their abilities. In that way, ZAE SHUNPO takes that concept infinitely farther. Instead of just reinforcing the body and legs with Ki, you actively push this energy out the feet, allowing you to go even faster, though it requires significantly more control."
Lee looked amazed at their father, feeling now more than ever that his father was just completely super-human. Sora, "Father's been teaching me the basics of Ki for awhile." John, "Yes, every time you have used ZAE SHUNPO or whenever either of you have used ZERO TENSHI for that matter you've used Ki on some level. As I've said, among its more common uses, it allows one to increase their body's abilities, and in a more advance application of this, you control the Ki in your body in specific ways to move and function at levels above normal physical potential, which allows one to perform techniques that could be considered super-human. SHUNPO is actually considered a gateway technique to learning that kind of control." Lee, "Okay, I get all that, but what about the glowing?" Sora actually answered this one, "That's just how you can interpret Ki with your eyes. When you get to a level of controlling it, by enhancing your eyes and other senses with Ki, basically an advanced application of SHOU, you can actually observe Ki, though to a normal person it is still invisible like normal." John, "Well, that's mostly true. That said, it is actually possible, at very high levels, to go beyond even that, and at that point it would actually become visible to even a normal person. That's the ultimate level of Ki, what is known as manifestation. But that's a whole other discussion. In any case remind me to start teaching you more about this when we get home. Lee, you are now easily up to the required level to start learning to control Ki now, and you Sora have been needing more advanced instruction for quite awhile, but you've been out of the house so I haven't been able to teach you some more advanced techniques yet."
Lee, "I have one more question and I know Sora wants to know too. What did you do at the end of the battle to win?" John smiled, "Ah, that I knew you would ask. I haven't really named it yet, though if I had to come up with one right now I would name it something like, ZERO HENITO. It is basically the same thing as Sarah's ZERO YUREIGENZAI. In fact, I must thank her as I based it off of that. It is a move that can only be preformed while using a new type of SHUNPO. It is an attack that requires only 8 steps to compete. It still focuses on the ankles though but the momentum comes from holding the sword in and as soon as you get into ZERO TIME on the third step, you extend your sword as far as possible with one hand and do four slashes and no more and stop in exactly one step. Like Sarah's attack, there is also pressure exerted on the wrists. Truthfully the attack isn't nearly as powerful as my regular ZERO TENSHI, but the four slashes are optimal for parrying a powerful thrust so its also a decent counter attack. Still needs much improvement though." They looked surprised for a second. Sora, "When did you make that move, I though you only learned about Sarah's attack today?" John, "I did only learn about it today. To be honest, I just created it about 2 seconds before I used it on you. It was the only way I could of won in that situation. Believe it or not, you are faster than me as I am now Sora but that is to be expected. The Ki needed to use ZAE SHUNPO is from instinct and competitive spirit, which means that when those things waver, so does the strength of ones Ki. Unfortunately on a level where I have no control over it, I couldn't be competitive enough towards my own son in a fight where I initially though I was going to win without this much effort. You threw me for a loop so my surprise held me back. Luckily for you that is my own fault for underestimating you so that is my loss. You on the other hand definitely knew it was going to take everything you had to win so your competitive spirit was at its max creating as much Ki as possible. Today I only won by a nose hair. Feel proud of yourself Sora, I definitely am." Now with their questions answered, they headed for the new location so Lee could fight his dad.
Authors Note:
So this chapter is half the reason that this arc had to happen. I hinted at it last chapter, but it was purposefully written like a red herring, but here we are formally introduced to the concept of Ki in a more definite way. Ki is a mixture of human physical and mental forces and personified as a unique type of energy. That said, it isn't like magic, and thus not everyone can see it under normal circumstances, even if its effects are fully visible, which is why Lee was confused about it initially. That said, Ki will be an important concept to keep in mind going forward, and the fact that it is different from magic is important (And it is. Anyone who thinks that Ki and Magic are going to end up being the same thing somehow, I can assure you right now that you are wrong). In any case, it will be expanded upon later, so look forward to that.
Also, to touch upon something I've talked about with a friend, the concept of "Power" generally in this series is a bit unclear, so I want to clarify it a bit. People, in general on Earth, who do not have access to magic, are by and large what you would expect in terms of physical strength, with most being average and those in physical professions being slightly stronger and more capable, but within what could be defined as normal human limitations, including almost all who practice some kind of martial art or combat skills. That said, in this universe, if one takes their body and mind and trains them to high enough levels, it is possible to transcend those limitations, regardless of any deficiencies, such as not being born with magic for instance. Thus in the story, Ki exists to explain that possibility. Thus, a limited number of people on Earth are actually quite strong, to the point that a standard mage would have a hard time with them if in a fight. Along those lines, the power "curve" for such dedicated martial artists is actually much steeper than it would be for a normal mage, so while a regular mage would have no problem with a normal practitioner of Karate, even the stronger mages could be no match for a true master who has mastered their Ki and transcended their normal limits. Hope that clarifies it for anyone who may have been wondering.
