"It's a trap! Ash, that's no healing flask," Baro said, pulling it out of Ash's mouth.

"I know. Keep it somewhere safe for me. It'll be useful later." Ash said as Baro put it in his pocket.

Baro questions what Ash's purpose for this vile vial is, yet still chooses to trust. Ash is earnest and hardworking, his reasons for this poison should not be nefarious.

The cloaked man chases them up the stairs, his knife glowing silver with his qi as it carves through the multi-colored walls like a hot knife to butter. Ash drifts and glides around the corner while Baro hops over the beds and goes right for the glistening bag of gold.

"I'm going to kill you!" The cloaked man said, running up the stairs. Qi on his knife, but none on his gait.

With a flick of his heel and qi, Ash hops up above the cloaked man. A quick burst and release. No need for unnecessary qi use. His qi flows to the heel of his other foot with a spin. The cloaked man fails to notice the foot inches above his face.

"Garbage Style, Heretic's Pie Tie Glide"

POW!

Ash hops and flips over as the man stumbles and bounces off the wall. Ash glides under the mans feet, and sweeps.

"And Saw in Two Glide."

WAM!

The man falls, with no clue as to what happened or who hit him. Before he could even think, a wide-eyed savage looking orange eyed kid smiles wide in midair. He's swinging a bag of gold down and it bursts with qi, the trigger of this scavenger's realization.

He'd spent a dozen years trying to put more qi into his knife. It just tired him faster and faster. He couldn't figure out how to increase it. Boss said human flesh was the way. Boss was right, in the last ten years all their qi's have doubled. Yet besides the boss, the rest still haven't broken past qi practitioner. His whole life, he has wondered what qi experts have that he doesn't. All the time spent putting qi into the knife could have been used for learning when to put qi in the knife. For just a second this kid hit eighty percent of the qi he puts in his knife. It mustn't be anywhere as tiring, yet it's just as deadly. If the man's skull weren't about to shatter, he'd smile and laugh.

Qi expertise, that's what it means to be a qi expert.

SPLAT!

He flattens against the creaky floorboards as he crashes through the filthy building. It rumbles and shakes, yet holds firm. Ash and Baro look on down, and hop out the balcony.

The sun shines over sec city, giving it a glow in the distance. It's glistening structures tower high above the greenery of the surrounding forests. Canals lead to the city, and the center palace stands high above the other stone, brick, and metal buildings. Ash's school is attached to a wall which circles the kingdom. Inside the wall there is fine architecture, bigger homes, and unique designs leading all the way to the castle. Outside the wall, copy paste buildings and one particular alley leading to piles and piles of trash.

Oh I can see my school from here, and it's right on the wall too. Neat.

Ash surveys the area, looking for his home. It's about a two hour run away.

"Hey, you hungry?" Ash said.

"Dude, I'm starving," Baro said.

"My place is closer to here than the city, let's head there and have a feast."

Baro puts the bag down, and looks wistfully off to Sec Kingdom. He glows bright in the sun as he smiles and turns to Ash.

"I would love a feast!"

With great difficulty, Ash and Baro jump down the building. Ash leads the way, qi-hopping up and over swarms of alligator heads and Lili pads. The wind rushes past Baro as he follows with the bag of gold over his back. Around trees and grass blades taller than them, Ash without his hands glides, slides, hops, and weaves. Baro hops and flips over trees, infusing qi in the bag to smash through what flies in his way. Ash takes them up over the tree tops.

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This was a common technique Ash saw almost every time he went to throw out the ninja sect's trash. The way they hop through trees was masterful. At first it was hard to tell what they were doing, but once Ash achieved Kaimen Garbage Vision, all the intricate movements became clear to him. Those ninjas were incredible. Ash often caught them talking and even arguing with their hands while hopping from branch to branch. They were true bipedal masters of free movement. Ash thought it to be of utmost importance to unravel the mysteries of this freestyle movement, so he'd often drag his feet while sneakily watching the ninjas. Their footwork would free up two whole hands. Khal Sect disciples could use those hands for the garbage arts while also having excess to truly free movement. Sect Master Khan was so proud of this discovery he wanted to give Ash the Khal-bel prize for innovation. The elders didn't see it that way, they said the copyright violation would cause a war with the ninja sect and bring them all death. So they forbid Ash from ever using it.

Well, there's no ninja sect in this world.

"Hey, stop a second, would ya." Baro said. Stopping by a tree to catch his breath. He puts the bag down and points at Ash.

"You're not taking me to some secret ninja village, are you?"

What?

Ash trips and nearly collapses under the branch, barely catching himself against the tree. Baro takes a deep breath.

"The look on your face says confused, but the way you move says ninja. You're my friend, so I don't care what family you're from, but the ninja clan is at war with Sec Kingdom and I'm not trying to get involved. The ninjas will kill me if I go there and if they don't sec authorities will call me a traitor, it's lose-lose-lose-lose, get me."

It can't be.

"The ninja clan is real?" Ash said in shock.

Baro covers his mouth as his eyes widen. What has he done? Obviously the existence of the ninja clan isn't common knowledge, they're just that good at working in the shadows. Did he thoughtlessly leak that there is a secret war between the Agents of Sec kingdom and the Ninja clan. If Ash spreads the word, mass panic could create opportunity for the ninja clan. This was a severe mistake. Ash literally learned qi earlier in the morning. Since his arms are busted, he's heading home without using his arms. A natural course of action for someone at his level. It just creeped Baro out a bit when Ash suddenly locked onto the ninja rhythm of movement. His reaction and alibi's make it seem he has no connection with the ninja clan, yet those movements are sus. Could the person who raised him perhaps be a rogue ninja?

"I'm sorry Ash, I'm getting delirious from hunger and lack of sleep. What were we talking about again?"

Must have been a freak coincidence. The ninja clan aren't in this world. Though then again... the Kireina Kami mixture is also in this world, but that was just a freak coincidence.

Ash gets a little dizzy as he waves his hand. He's probably just hearing what he wants to hear, sleep deprivation does that. There is no ninja sect. Ash rests by the tree, and both them take a nap.

As the sun lowers, dangers loom from the foliage around. At first it was birds and bugs crawling on the sleeping children. Now snakes too are slithering towards them.

"What are you doing, Ash. You're going to become food if you sleep out here." A voice from bushes said.

Ash grabs the snake his sleep, one hand near it's head, the other gripping the tail. He yanks as though it were a resistance band to stretch his shoulders with. He screams.

"Yee-ouch!"

Baro's eyes flutter open, he slaps a snake off him as he shakes the creepy crawlers off his shirt. He yawns and rubs his eyes.

"Oh shit, Ash, it's getting dark!"

Ash gets up, everywhere in this damn forest looks the same. He's completely lost his bearings. They've barely ate all day, and the pain in his arms are just getting worse. Ash needs to figure a way home at once, and the stress is getting to him. His eyes widen as a glimmer of qi tickles his ears. A hand from the trees points to the city, a light in the sky. Ash turns. Of course! The city is bright, he can see the back alleys he first came to town from. From there he can triangulate where home is, simple trigonometry.

But who is that person in the darkness, the one who pointed the obvious out? It's discreet figure is already gone. Ash waves at Baro, and signals him to follow.

They hop through the trees an hour more before Baro speaks.

"The air has changed, it's so clean. This doesn't make sense. They told me this side of the forest was contaminated by the waste. This is not contaminated at all."

Ash hops down onto finely trimmed grass, and proceeds down a delicately walked path amongst the flowers.

"Yes, I recently discovered I have certain people to thank for because of that. This is a sacred place, watch the flowers."

Baro follows Ash's footsteps, making sure not to step on any flowers on the barely visible trail. It took tremendous concentration. Applying qi to the eyes is no simple feat, and it takes tremendous discipline to adjust the ocular lenses for precise vision. If used carelessly, one risks forever altering the lenses of their eyes, blurring their vision until they learn proper qi control. Except many fail to gain this control, and others lose grip on it with age. Baro is too young to risk dabbling with such a technique, so instead he opts to mimic Ash's footsteps as closely as possible... inadvertently teaching himself the garbage collector's glide in the process.

They pass by fruits and vegetables a plenty. The bountiful growth hiding beneath the thick foliage is unlike anything Baro has ever seen. Though the Sec Kingdom's bounties are on a different scale when it comes to volume, this garden dwarfs the entire kingdom when it comes to variety. With high quality ingredients in these numbers, it's no wonder Ash had exactly what he needed to become as powerful as he is now. Whoever it is that prepares Ash's food, Baro is looking forward to experiencing what they bring to the table. The people of Sec Kingdom are fools. They thought this land foul waste without bothering to check it. They failed to realize the tremendous treasure right beneath their noses. The treasure of trash valley.

Ash walks up to a small wooden home built into a tree, blending perfectly into the environment around, and kicks the door open.