— — — — — —
"Kid, come give it a try."
Ittosai Kunieda raised his wooden sword and settled into a textbook two-handed stance. Then… he just stood there. Completely still.
"Didn't this old guy say he was gonna demonstrate a technique? Why's he frozen like a statue?"
Kazuma stared at Ittosai for a long moment. Only when his Haki picked up tiny fluctuations did he catch what was going on.
"Standing still… but moving the muscles in incredibly subtle ways. Looks motionless, but inside it's all shifting currents."
Now that he understood, Kazuma tried to imitate it—standing perfectly still while quietly activating and controlling each muscle.
"Hmph. Kid, I spent fifty years learning this one move. If you can master it right now, I'll eat this wooden sword on the spot."
Ittosai sounded calm, but inside he was already cackling.
This technique looked simple, just an advanced version of the previous one—make the movement so tiny it seems like you're not moving at all, then reproduce the same technique within that stillness.
But that one step—from motion to absolute stillness—had taken him fifty full years.
He was already preparing the mocking words he'd use when Kazuma inevitably failed.
Right then, Aoi Kunieda walked out."Grandpa, Sensei, dinner's ready. I made enough today."
"Aoi, I'll eat later. We're doing something important right now. You guys go ahead without us." Ittosai didn't even spare dinner a thought. He just wanted to see that cocky brat's frustrated expression when the training backfired.
Just imagining it killed his appetite.
"What important thing?"
Aoi looked at Kazuma, still standing frozen. She was confused for a moment… then her eyes widened.
"Kazuma-Sensei… is learning the Shingetsu Style secret technique?"
"Kind of. I didn't teach him anything. I just came out for morning practice. He started copying me on his own. Whether he fails or breaks himself has nothing to do with me," Ittosai said, pretending innocence.
"Grandpa, stop joking. I know you and Sensei butt heads, but you can't do this! That kind of training is insanely difficult. One wrong move and you can seriously injure yourself."
Aoi hurried to Kazuma's side. "Sensei, don't try this. It's impossible. Even I couldn't do it after training the Shingetsu Style my whole life. You only just started learning—don't be stubborn. Come eat."
She moved to grab his arm—But at that moment, Kazuma began to move.
"Breathe… in… out…"
He started throwing punches. Slow ones. Tiny ones. And each punch was smaller than the one before.
It was extremely hard. He couldn't complete it in one go—so he just worked his way toward it, step by step.
Every punch increased his control a little. The next punch shrank a little more.
"Sensei…" Aoi froze, staring at the subtle motions.
It wasn't perfect, not as refined as her grandfather's—but this was undeniably the Shingetsu Style secret art.
"He… he actually pulled it off!" Even Ittosai's eyes bulged.
Sure, Kazuma had ridiculous physical talent, which helped… but not this much. Even with top-tier talent, Ittosai expected five years at minimum. And that was assuming everything went right.
Yet in under five minutes, Kazuma was already starting to grasp it.
The grandfather and granddaughter held their breath, afraid even the sound of breathing would disrupt him.
One minute... Five minutes... Ten minutes... Half an hour....
Inside the house, Tohru and Hilda noticed the empty dining table and went searching. Eventually they stepped outside.
Seeing the three motionless figures like carved statues, Tohru asked, "Aoi, what are you all doing out here? Why do you look so serious?"
"We're watching a monster."
Aoi didn't blink, eyes locked on Kazuma. She wasn't even the one training, but her nerves were tight. He was one step away. His movements were now so small they were almost imperceptible.
Just a little more and he'd finish it. Reaching a level that took her grandfather decades—in under an hour.
A miracle. A monster.
"A monster? You mean Kazuma?" Tohru glanced at him. Kazuma's breathing was so calm it was eerie. Something felt off, so she tilted her head, trying to spot what exactly was wrong.
"Hmph."
Kazuma compressed every bit of strength and energy into a single point, then threw a punch. In an instant, a formless shockwave blasted out of him.
The ground tore open in a deep trench. The massive stone a few meters away shattered on the spot, and the wall behind it crumbled like paper.
"He did it! He actually learned the Shingetsu Style secret technique!"
Ittosai stared at Kazuma, who hadn't even moved yet still launched a devastating strike. The old man couldn't help shaking his head.
"New generations always surpass the old ones. I really am getting old."
He turned and walked back toward the house. His silhouette looked… a little dejected. Decades of his own effort, and this kid caught up in an hour.
Almost made all his hard work feel pointless.
"Grandpa… Sensei's training method puts a huge strain on the body. Doing it once or twice is fine, but…"
Aoi hurried over, fussing at Kazuma in a panic. "Just don't overdo it. You'll seriously injure yourself… okay, I gotta go check on Grandpa!"
She ran after Ittosai. Unbelievable. He was the one picking fights, yet he's the one sulking now. And now she had to go coax him like a child.
Her grandpa really was just a big kid.
Ittosai and Aoi left, leaving only Kazuma, Tohru, and Hilda in the yard.
"That was incredible. You didn't even move, but the power was insane. Is that magic?" Tohru asked, eyes sparkling.
"No, not magic. More like a martial skill," Kazuma said. "It's about studying techniques and developing the body to draw out its full power. Gotta admit, the Shingetsu Style is pretty legit. That cranky old man's stronger than he looks."
He kept practicing, muscles subtly working. His quick mastery wasn't just talent.
Life Return played a huge part. At its core, Life Return was total control over every cell of the body. With enough mastery, you could even move individual strands of hair.
The Shingetsu Style secret art was basically micro-controlling every muscle and bit of skin. With Life Return backing him, Kazuma picked it up fast.
"Humans really can't be underestimated," Hilda muttered.
Most demons looked down on humans. Actually, most races did. Dragons thought humans were small and fragile. Demons thought humans were weak and annoying. Elves thought humans were dirty and wicked.
Overall, nobody respected humans.
Yet strong humans kept appearing. Dragon slayers who killed mighty dragons. God-slayers who cut down divine beings. Heroes who defeated demon kings.
They were weak, but somehow kept accomplishing the impossible.
"But Aoi said you shouldn't train like this too often or you'll get hurt. Want to go eat and rest?" Tohru asked.
"No need. I'm fine. Just save me some food."
To Kazuma, the idea of "bodily damage" was laughable. Even ignoring his near-regenerative organism-level recovery, his sage body alone could bounce back from almost anything.
A bit of training damage was nothing. He'd fix it in minutes. Worst case he'd eat two extra bowls of rice afterward.
"Alright."
Tohru and the others headed in for dinner, leaving Kazuma training in the yard.
...
Three hours passed. His physical strength jumped significantly, though his energy dropped sharply.
His stomach growled.
"Hungry. Time to eat."
Kazuma stopped. He realized the only real limit wasn't durability. It was food. If he trained too long, he just got hungry.
Without enough nutrition, his body couldn't keep going.
He ate the meal they'd saved him while thinking through the next step, all while rummaging around mentally in his Gate of Babylon.
Actually, it had become part of his daily routine to search through that endless treasury, hoping to find his beloved Ea.
A moment later, the daily search finished. He found several new items, but one of them caught his eye immediately.
He pulled it from the treasury and held it up. The dazzling glow and strange shape were unmistakable.
"The Stormforge Aetaris Armor?!"
.
.
.