Chapter three: A new path
2.1: A journey to Heaven or Hell?
One week before the entrance exam the three of them were training on the lake one last time in preparation for the exam. After 6 hellish training sessions Itara and Mikashi still couldn’t harnessed atomic force, at best all they could was summon sparks and enhance their stamina. Having no time till the entrance exam left no room for improvement and they had to settle for the minimum for now. “I thought both of you had more potential than this but turns out all those sessions and time was wasted. There’s only a week left till the entrance ceremony and in that time you guys can’t acquire not even basic flair or string techniques. You’re going to have to settle for now.” As she finished the last statement time went slower for them making something out in their minds as they heard the word “settle”. Time reverted to normal hearing Kira in the distance “guys. Guys. GUYS!”
—we are not settling even if it is for a week!!! Itara and Mikashi against the idea protested. While they protested, she smirked brewing a heinous plan. “ok then, I’ll yield to your request… if and only if you can run 5 laps— before she finished Itara interrupted her, “ha! That’s it!? I can do that easily!”, “are you done?!”, Itara replied lowering his voice “yes”, Kira continued to talk “as I was saying if and only if you guys can run 5 laps around our whole land of the Namikazes in under twenty seconds, then and only then will I give you another chance, but I doubt you’ll achieve the basics of flair control.” They looked at each other and internalized what she meant/entailed and began feeling somewhat discouraged and slightly thinking it was impossible, yet they also wanted to see where their training has led them, a mix feeling between thinking “it’s not possible” and “screw it let’s do it” leaving them stumped. “so, are you going to do it or are you going settle?” Kira said with the uttermost disrespect she could possibly muster. Itara and Mikashi took five seconds to answer and replied simultaneously “we’ll do it, but we’ll do it in ten seconds” said completely confident in their abilities, Kira wasn’t surprised, but shocked at even when they hesitated, they didn’t choose to settle for giving up nor her deal. Itara ran ten steps forward and said “done. See, and in less than a second” Kira chuckled “oh this isn’t where we start nor where you finish, but I like your enthusiasm”, Mikashi then replied amused “ok then where are we going to start? Synagogue peak?” without saying anything she gave him a smirk, he replied “wait… what?! You’re serious?!” she nodded and replied “yeah so lets get moving we don’t have time to be wasting, last one to get to the starting line has to do one hundred one handed pushups before the laps start”. In an instant they covered 150 meters leaving a 0.7 meters deep and 1.6 meters long crater, already halfway around the perimeter of the forest silence they kept a matching speed of 162 kph, everything Itara passed by sparked into flames spreading a line of fire of fifty meters alongside of lighting stroke vegetation left by Mikashi. With fifty more meters left to reach the starting line their strides got wider covering more ground per second reaching the synagogue peak in 5 seconds. When they got there however Kira was waiting for them sitting against a snow-covered tree, she stood up and applauded slowly, “that was quite fast congrats to both, and you both arrived at the same time so you can start the laps whenever you want. Also I only did the starting line which is over there besides those two peaks the rest of the track make it yourselves”. They looked at each other and back at her shocked and awed, they didn’t know how to react, so instead used that confusion as fuel for their enthusiasm. Excited and fear induced they walked slow paced towards the starting the line and got into place, when they were ready Kira counted down from 5, each second their calves flexed and feet pressed down all the way to the earth underneath the snow, adrenaline beginning to get distributed throughout their bodies, as she got to one, two 10 meter long craters formed, heat emitting from the exposed earth, both of them were almost matched in speed with Mikashi leading by 3 meters. Already passing synagogue peak they head towards the border between the Namikazes and one of the six realms they come across a wall of rock defining a curve, so to not diminish their speed they ran sideways on it and propelled themselves. In 2 seconds, they were able to cover 1/6 of the first lap of the 184 km land. Running downhill the last mountain they gain a lot of momentum and widened their strides covering 0.04556kilometers/second leaving a line on the west side of the mountain. The land looked very different from what they saw in maps, yet they could navigate with a bit of ease through the perimeter of the land, seeing their homeland from the highest and lowest point in multiple viewpoints gave them a new perspective and began imagining and asking themselves just how big the planet is. As they multitask imagining the planet, seeing glimpses of their homeland, and focusing on the laps they already covered 4/6 in total of the first lap in 4 seconds. Keeping count of the seconds they knew ten seconds was not possible, but twenty still was, so accepting their defeat they clutched into the twenty second goal and tried to go faster. As they passed starting line 8 seconds had passed and Kira noticed a fusion of atomic forces on the soles of their feet making her think that this was exactly what they needed producing another plan to help them learn to use strings and flairs. She then decided the 5 laps weren’t necessary anymore but wanted to see their limit and how much they could complete.
“Hey Itara, your slowing me down, so I’m going ahead catch up if you can!!” as they were halfway through the second lap Mikashi yelled in a pompous tone while gapping Itara and reaching the starting line in 2 seconds completing the second lap in half the time than the first. Itara now being behind by a lot tried to get faster increasing his stride even more, clutching and expanding his leg muscles and even using the landscape to propel himself further, only increasing his speed by half of Mikashi’s, however while his speed was significantly less, the destructive power left by his actions created wide gaps in the earth emitting heat, strong winds ripping trees and even creating small tornadoes, it caused concerned for the people at the village, even before increasing his speed, the people couldn’t distinguish what was going on or what cause this so suddenly, even professionals who’ve studied phenomena’s like those couldn’t understand, they were scared for their lives.
However, there were others who were shocked and surprised by not what, but who could be creating such events. Mikashi’s parents were one of those, they were actually afraid it was their son who was making them, not of their son, but of the power he may hold. A boy 1 year older than Itara and Mikashi with orange hair and eyes filled with joy was excited for whoever was creating it, he wanted badly to find out who was doing that. On the other hand, there was another boy 2 years older than them with dark blue hair and a glair that makes you shit your pants, but also makes you wonder why is it we do what we do. There he was near the town center beating up some punks that disrespected him when he suddenly felt a gust of air in all directions, he looked up and to his right seeing smoke, tornadoes, trees flying everywhere and his expression while beating them was emotionless nothing in there, however seeing the destruction sent him a chill down his spine he has never felt before making his face muscles clenched and before he knew it his whole face widened his eyes filled with excitement, yet, that’s not what they influenced, it was fear.
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There were also two more people in site who knew. A young girl 2 years older than Kira and 3 years older than Mikashi and Itara, black with shades of red and eyes filled with passion she saw the event while relaxing high up in a tree and feeling a strong cold and warm wind surprisingly leaving her even more relaxed. The last one that knew it was someone was another boy about 4 years older than Mikashi and Itara with dark purple hair.
15 seconds had passed and while Mikashi had finished his 5 laps Itara was down to his last one decreasing his speed halfway, so he arrives exactly where he started. As his speed decreased enough, he was able to make it in 17 seconds accomplishing what they were determined to do.
“that was close Itara, three more seconds and you would’ve lost, but I’m glad you showed me what you got, you as well Mikashi” she said fully invested in them and really excited to train them once again. With a smug face Mikashi wiped his upper with his index finger and said to Itara “you know I was two seconds ahead of you and you could never catch up, makes sense since you never could beat in a race” Itara brewed up a heinous smile and replied “that’s fair, since I did more damage to the track” Mikashi then laughed while replying “that’s ironic seeing how you could never beat me not once”, Itara then turned serious “well that just shows how much I’ve improved, maybe— no I can definitely beat you now!” Mikashi looked at him smiling proudly “ok then, tomorrow— Kira interrupted them “um no sorry, but we cant waste time, tomorrow and the next 5 days you guys are to learn and master the basics of atomic force and string flairs!” Mikashi paused and exclaimed “ok, fine then next week after the exam we’ll fight and decide who’s gotten stronger!”, Itara reached out his hand to seal the promise “it’s a promise” both said simultaneously.
After a hellish twenty seconds of laps Kira told them to take the rest of the day off training and head back down. Mikashi decided to head to the town library in search of maps of the world and places to go, and Itara went to the outskirts of the village near the first emperors’ home where there was a kenjutsu (art of the curved sword or katana) studio. While they were learning other things of their interest, Kira went back to her home to keep digging on ‘dreaming voices’.
2.2: Nito de Artium
On the day of the exam Itara went to the lake alone right as the sun was only beginning to crack through the mountains reflecting upon the lake creating a scenery that only could be observed just as the nighttime dissipated slowly into the other side of the world. Gazing upon the scenery sitting at the end of dock with his feet grazing the water he transcended into an inner monologue expressing his true feelings on the exam, he began to realize what he wanted… was to wreak havoc and get his blood rushing, as he realized this, a memory he didn’t know he had of Mikashi surfaced making something align. He remembered Mikashi talking to him underneath the moon about how he felt, a greater feeling “more than a simple adrenaline rush” and for a brief second the color of his green eyes eclipsed into a blood red, his expression however remained stoic and calm. His eyes and expression in the moment were like the sea, some parts were peaceful while others nothing but chaos. A while after he began meditating and freeing his mind of thoughts, acknowledging them, but letting them flow instead of analyzing them. As all his thoughts flowed his body and mind became more relaxed and at ease, the more relaxed he got the more he began losing control of every inch of his body and mind and leaning forward, slowly he fell into the water, he was no longer in his body, yet he was aware of how everything felt and as his body got to the bottom he observed the underwater world gazing upon a new perspective of the scenery he saw up there, delighted he wanted to stay there forever, but even though he was outside his body he wasn’t dead he simply expanded his awareness so much that’s how he felt. Several minutes had passed Itara still hadn’t discovered how to block the flow of his thoughts or go back to his mind not focusing on his outside, if he didn’t train underwater, he would’ve already. He began to imagine the feeling of the water pressure on his body, all the sensations, his breath, he focused on his thoughts and like that his awareness diminished to just the five senses being able to resurface.
When he resurfaced putting his arms over the dock, he saw the sun was already set 190º to his south, southwest realizing he now only had ten minutes to arrive for the exam and to go to Mikashi and Kira’s homes. While Itara was running frantically towards their houses the other two already met up and went towards his house. A few seconds later Itara was approaching the intersecting paths that connected his house, the town, and the lake, and while monologuing “I can’t believe we’re going to be late because of me, I need to speed u— huh? Mikashi, Kira?! before noticing he crashed with them falling all three to the ground. Kira felt the back of her head groaning out of discomfort, while Mikashi groaned a bit and began yelling and choking to Itara, “ah that hur— damn it Itara why you always have to be so reckless, watch where you’re going!”. Kira got up and ask Itara where was he out of curiosity, Itara replied “Oh, I was in the lake meditating and trying to get insight on something” Kira responded intrigue and with a worried consciousness “are you ok? Is it something I can help you with?” Itara smiled and chuckled saying “its fine thanks”. Mikashi didn’t say anything but gave a worried glance towards Itara and immediately pointed out that they were late to the exam. “hey guys are we going to stay wasting time or are we going to head out to the exam… cause we’re already late” they all suddenly looked at each other with a fire brewing up Kira then says “are you guys ready then it wont be easy” Itara and Mikashi replied simultaneously glaring psychotically “if it was easy we wouldn’t be training this hard” and they all headed towards the place where the exam was being held at.
The academy of flair arts located on the other end of the land far passed the range of mountains that surrounded them. Half the academy laid on of the six realms, one of the calmest realms. The three of them instead of walking towards the academy they began running and jumping on top the roofs in the town they were already 5 minutes late and it took a normal person 30 minutes to arrive, luckily, they weren’t normal.
In the coliseum where it was being held most of the examinees were already there, amongst those was Kira’s cousin of her mother’s side belonging to the most respected family in the land Uchiro Kuro, and her best friend Haruki daughter of the two best bounty hunters that graduated from the academy. They were surprised and worried that Kira hadn’t arrived yet and wonder why was she taking so long, “hey Kuro have you seen Kira arrive yet? It’s strange for her not to be first” Kuro replied beginning to questio why “actually now that you’ve mentioned it I haven’t, maybe she got caught up in training or reading” Haruki replied getting into an inner monologue “hm perhaps you’re right, we shouldn’t worry too much then” but then she could miss the opportunity to enroll into what she’s been wanting to get in for 3 years now… as she continued into deep thought Itara and Mikashi escorting Kira were approaching the entrance of the coliseum from the top and landed perpendicularly to the entrance on the roof and jumped towards the center making their entrance as flashy as possible.