Joshua Ryu was still in Oblivion, the place where he ended up after a last ditch attempt to save Unagi from the horrors of the demon, Alter Ego, who was now back inside Joshua.  Oblivion is just white, blank space as far as the eye could see.  Oguri Takumi, the spirit of the silver Soulstone, had told Joshua they where going to train for ten days, and when that time was up, Joshua would be stronger than ever.  It seemed they where going have to do th training here instead of the sacred place which Oguri had promised.  Oguri walked up beside Joshua, his devil wing that protruded from his back hovering behind the Ryu.

"Well," Joshau began saying "here is as good as anywhere.  Seeing as this is a place where time no begins or stops, I can guess we are going to be here for a while." Joshua smiled at his joke, but felt great despair on the inside.

Training here is good," Oguri said with his deep voice that seemed to echo where ever he was, "Which is good, since what I'm going to teach you should be kept a secret."

"What are you teaching me?"

"Ki." Oguri simply told.  Joshua had a confused look on his face, so Oguri explained. "You think your Ki skills AND Ki levels are good enough, and you boast about them, but in the eyes of many warriors across the universe, you would be making an ass out of yourself."  Joshua grunted at the put downs, but Oguri continued.  "Do you know why the Eight Inner Gates does such damage to your body if you open enough?"

"Because my body can't handle all that  Ki for extended periods of time?"

"Exactly.  That is why I'm going to teach you a technique that gives you double the Ki the Eight Inner Gates would give you," Joshua's eyes widened at this.  "and in the meantime, you will be gaining mastery over your Ki.  Do you know Limit Breaker,  the technique Ritsuke uses?"  Joshua nodded his head.  "You will be learning that.  Let's begin."  Oguri took several steps backward to put distance between him and Joshua.  "The Limit Breaker is nothing like the Eight Inner Gates, just so you know.  The Eight Inner Gates draws power from energy that is dormant in your body.  Limit Breaker multiples your Ki but what you already have.  Ten times is the maximum."

"Alright, so how do I do it?!" Joshua asked impatiently.

"Like I already said, your multiplying the Ki you have, so power up to your maximum, but do not transform."  Joshua did as he was told, and a dark green aura of energy quickly formed around him.  It made his hair move as if wind was blowing through it.  The air became humid only just around him, and there was a slight increase in pressure.  Oguri continued. "Good.  Now focus on every last particle of Ki in your body.  I want you to mash one particle of Ki into another, increasing it.  You must then replace that lost Ki particle with another.  Continue mashing your Ki together until all you have left is large amounts of energy in your body.  Need more explanation?" Joshua shook his head, and got right to work.

He closed his eyes tight, and did as told.  He combined one particle of Ki with another, and felt the every small increase.  He replaced the Ki particle with some of his won energy.  He repeated the process, combining Ki particles all around his body, and quickly replacing Ki particles.  He could feel the air becoming more humid, as it was growing more difficult to breath. The pressure increase caused his knees to bend slightly.  He felt it was coming to a close, as he now had the same number of Ki particles he had when he began, only they were all much larger, which meant they were all contained more Ki.  

When Joshua opened his eyes, he realized just how much more Ki he had achieved.  The aura around him had increased is size a lot.  It was about five times larger now.  Oguri was now right beside the aura.  The energy was so great it began to burn into the white surface that was supposedly the ground they stood on, forming a growing crater, even though in Oblivion it just felt like you were sinking, that extended out as long as he aura of power.  Oguri lifted one hand with all fingers stuck out.  One by one, he lowered them, as if he was counting off something.  When he lowered the last finger, Joshua felt it.  He fell to his knees.  It felt like his whole body was tearing himself apart, right in half.  He looked down at his hand, and saw his skin was eroding away!

"What-what's... happening to... me!?" Joshua cried through gritted teeth.

"Silly me." Oguri said at a calm pace as if everything was just peachy.  "Did I forget to mention if you fail at this training, you could die?"

"WHAT!?"

"Quit your complaining!" Oguri demanded. "Consider this a crash course!  If you can't master such a simple thing, you shouldn't be a fighter anyway!  Now, focus the particles of Ki equally throughout your body!  If you put too much in one area however, it could result in loss of the use of that body part or organ!" He smirked. "So be careful around the heart."  

"....Jackass....."

But Joshua did as instructed.  He first evenly put some on his shoulders, then down to his elbows, and finally to his hands.  He did the same with his legs, and throughout his body.  After about five minutes, everything was evened out, and Joshua felt fine.  In fact, he felt better than fine.  He felt great.  Stronger.  More powerful than ever.  He looked up at Oguri, who was smiling, but it was a congratulations smile.  Joshua was instructed to maintain the Ki for at least an hour, and so he did.

When the hour was up, Joshua dropped all the Ki at once, streaks of sweat running down his brow and dropping on the ground that seemed to not even be there.  Oguri walked up next to Joshua, and gave him a pat on the back.  It was a little harder than he must have meant though, because Joshua fell forward flat on his face.  He didn't cry out in pain at all, just sort of stayed there.

"Good job, Joshua."

He was just met by snores coming from Joshua.

*****

Joshua woke up, slowly rising from his spot on the invisible ground.  Joshua rubbed his eyes and looked around slowly, trying to find Oguri, but the spirit was no where to be found.  Joshua got on his feet and stretched a little before walking around, still searching for Oguri.  Joshua found it impossible that he couldn't see him, since Oblivion was just stretched out, flat white space.  Suddenly, Joshua felt a person was behind him.  Many, actually.  He was met with hundreds upon hundreds of Oguris!  Joshua was so startled he stumbled back a little, almost tripping on his own two feet.

"What is this?" Joshua yelled, and the Oguri in front stepped forward.

"This is training to perfect your Ki control.  You already have the ability to to use your Ki to do various things such as climb straight up things, cut items, and more.  Not to mention all your different techniques, such as Rasengan.  His is all good and stuff, but you could be doing more."

"Like what?"

"Like firing Ki from any point on your body at any time.  It's easy, just like firing Ki from your hands.  Try it on one of the Oguris."

Joshua nodded, and focused Ki into his foot.  He kicked the air, and at first it seemed like nothing, but a fairly large Ki blast out of his foot and struck an Oguri, causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke.  Joshua experimented with different parts of his body, including out of his butt for a laugh or two, much to the annoyance of Oguri.

"Alright, alright." Oguri stopped Joshua. "You get the concept.  Let's get on to the next thing.  Fire a very condensed ball of Ki, like you would do with a miniature Rasengan, and then concentrate on it very hard."  Joshua did the deed, and fired the Ki blast.  It moved forward quickly. "Now stop it by creating a Ki pull!" Joshua released Ki into the air, and the blast stopped!  "Now, by using your fingers to direct it, you can move the Ki ball around!  Use it to defeat some of the Oguris!"  Joshua pointed his finger up, down, sideways, diagonal; every possible direction, taking out an Oguri with every swoop.  "Good.  You're getting the hang of this quick.  Now, release all the Ki in the ball at once!"  Again, Joshua did as told, and the ball exploded in a blaze of fire, taking out more Oguris!  "I'm sure you should know that the more Ki you put in the blast, the more powerful the explosion and range.  If you continue practicing with your Ki, you will find how much you can do with it.  Now, let's continue."

So Joshua did all that Oguri told him to do with his Ki.  About half way through, Joshua had to use his quickly perfected Limit Breaker to access more Ki.  After doing that, they continued to practice Ki attacks, defenses, and other techniques that involved use of Ki.  With every technique Joshua used and mastered,, more Oguris were taken out.

In the end, there was just one Oguri left, excluding the one teaching Joshua.  To take out the final Oguri, Joshua fired a very small Ki blast.  It traveled at super fast speeds toward the Oguri.  Even though the  blast was small, when it connected with Oguri, it created an explosion of power that equaled that of that the Dragon Destroyer, possibly even the Yin-Yang Blast.  Exhausted, Joshua once again dropped to his knees, slumped forward, and fell asleep.  Oguri walked up next to him, smiling again.

"Tomorrow is another day."  He then added: "Then again, you can't tell when days pass in the God forsaken hell hole..."

OOC: I gain 1085 PL and the move Limit Breaker, which I will use to replace Eight Inner Gates.  

--Last edited by Joshua Ryu on 2007-08-30 18:06:07 --

accepted