Capítulo 9: Chapter 9
"NO! FUCK! How can I fail? I should have been able to break my limiter! So why? Why can't I lift this damned spear even after a week of training?" In a small clearing a few kilometers away from the base of Korin Tower, Kaz was having a panic attack as he tried his best to lift the spear, but only managed to crack the ground beneath it.
"Did I overestimate myself? I was able to grow so fast in this world, so that means my talent is at least decent, so learning something like this shouldn't have been so difficult!" Kaz gave up and slumped over a small pond of melted ice near him, staring at his reflection. He smiled bitterly upon seeing the face, it was so similar to Tarbles, Vegetas talentless brother, with the only difference being that he had brown hair and no tail.
"No, I don't have talent. I grew this fast because of my healing power, which, if I didn't have, I would never had been able to grow strong enough to beat anything stronger than a wolf." He started to shake a little as he remembered the promise he had made to himself a week ago. Back then, dying didn't seem that bad as he was confident in his ability to break the limit before then, but actually facing it, was a completely different story.
Staring at his reflection in the water, he noticed the fear in his face. "Fuck!" He screamed as he punched the water with all his strength, causing most of the water to explode into the air. "Why did I make that ridiculous promise? Learn this shit within a week when it takes months for actual martial artists to learn? What's wrong with me?"
"You know what? I'm not going to do it! That was just a stupid promise made by a stupid person! Why should I have to listen to it? I've never gone through with the promises I made to myself before, so why should I start now?" Kaz yelled at himself with a shaky voice, which was now cracking a lot more than the voice of a twelve-year-old should.
He clenched his fist out of anger, and uncontrollably released his Ki, causing the surrounding area to shake. However, instead of breaking things and blowing everything up, his Ki instead spread out around him like a gentle breeze, instantly melting all of the ice and snow, and causing the grass and leaves on the trees to grow back at a visible speed. There was even a very faint glow in the area, making it look as if the sun was shining down on it despite it still being night.
All of Kaz's cowardice and anger at his self melted away as he looked at the grass. The water that he punched into the air a second ago started to come back down like rain, mixing with his Ki and causing flowers to grow wherever the raindrops landed.
"I- What? My powers... can do this?" He had tried using his Ki on wounded plants and animals before, and while it did heal them a little, it was never strong enough to do something like completely bring back a section of a half-dead forest during winter.
He looked down at his own body, only to see that his normally grey aura had turned golden. Not golden like a Super Saiyan, it was more of a very gentle, holy color of gold. Instead of his aura violently surrounding his body like a flame, it was now gently circling him. He didn't feel stronger or anything, but he did feel better, calmer even, as if he was being embraced by a loved one.
"Why? Why do I have power like this? Who gave me this strength even though I don't deserve it? Even though I have never done anything at all to earn it? When I'm nothing but a coward that doesn't even have the courage to keep a simple promise to himself. Why me?" Kaz asked as he looked up at the sky, or more specifically, the place above Korin's Tower. He couldn't even see the top of Korin's tower, let alone anything above it, and yet he knew that it was there, listening to him.
And as if in response to his question, at that moment dawn broke and the sun began to rise. It rose directly behind Korin's Tower, causing its outline to stand out even more in the sky. It rose slowly, and nearly blinded Kaz when he stared at it too long. But he couldn't look away, because, at that moment, everything suddenly changed in his eyes. Up until now, he had viewed everything as a fantasy, but for some reason, this sunrise felt more real to him than anything he had experienced in his past life.
"*Sigh* Goddamn it." He said in a soft voice as he looked down at his spear and then back up at Korin's Tower. He sighed with a defeated expression and began to walk toward it.
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When he arrived at the base of the tower, he carefully looked around to see if Bora was here, but he seemed to have gone hunting as both he and his spear, which was normally on a rack outside his tipi. He was about to start climbing, when he felt a tug on his Gi.
"Where are you going? Didnt father say that you couldn't climb the tower yet?" Kaz looked down to see little Upa staring at him curiously.
"Yes, he did say that. But I'm not going to climb it to reach the top, I'm only going to climb up a few kilometers, then I'll come back down. Its the only way Ill be able to complete the task your father gave me." Kaz smiled and patted Upa's head, trying to shoo him away.
"What do you mean? What will climbing the tower only a little do?" A confused Upa continued to ask.
"Well, lets just say that to do what your father asked of me, I need to become a warrior. And by climbing this I will be able to do that."
"How will it make you a warrior?"
"That's enough questions for now, okay." Kaz said as he turned back to the tower and looked up, anticipation and fear filling his eyes.
"That's right, I'll either become a warrior, or die trying." He said under his breath and started climbing.
He climbed at his top speed for over three hours, stopping many times to reconsider whether or not he should do this, but every time he just shook it off before he could stop himself and kept going.
After three hours, he stopped, and looked down. "Alright, t-this should be high enough, right? Now all I have to do is take the..." Kaz's voice trailed off as he stared down, getting dizzy from the height. "The last step. I just have to take the last step." Kaz said in a shaky voice and heavy breathing. By now the terror of what he was about to do was setting in, and his face reflected it, as he was petrified on the spot and covered in cold sweat.
"Come on Kaz, move! All you have to do is jump! That's it! You received such a great power, and you have to live up to it, and truly make it yours. How are you going to do that if you cant even face death? When everybody else in this world has or will face death dozens of times in their life, you cant be the coward that hides from it!" Kaz yelled to himself in fear, not wanting to listen to a word of what he was telling himself.
But then, looking directly at the sun, he remembered why he had to do this. Closing his eyes, Kaz took a deep breath, doing his best to stabilize his breathing and calm his emotions. Then, with determination in his heart, he jumped, as far as he could, even using his Ki to enhance the distance. This allowed him to make it almost a thousand meters before he started falling.
His expression, which was already filled with fear, sunk even further as the realization of what he had just done set in. Tears formed in his eyes as he truly stared directly into deaths eyes. He had nearly died many times before, but he had always had a way out then. He could climb a tree, or knock a massive mountain down, or use a suicidal kamikaze attack to survive, and of course, there was always his healing power.
But at this moment, he had no way out. He couldn't survive a fall at this height, and he couldn't fly. Nobody on the planet knew that he was doing this except maybe Korin, and he wouldn't come down just to help a suicidal mortal. And he wasn't strong enough to punch the ground to land and avoid damage like All Might and Midoria did. He had absolutely no way out, other than to break his limit.
"What have I done? I'm going to kill myself after only a year of being in this world! I haven't even been able to meet Goku yet! All for what? To get some new power? Why am I this stupid?" He started to berate himself as he panicked and looked around for something that he could use to save himself, but he found nothing.
"No. I'm going to die." He finally realized as his face relaxed a little, and the life in his eyes seemed to dim a little. Watching the fast approaching Earth, his mind couldn't help but wander, as his life began to flash before his eyes.
He saw his entire childhood. He lived in a relatively large house with his parents. He had been homeschooled for his entire life, and his parent were extremely overprotective, so he was never allowed outside. He never had any friends and even his own parents were both always busy with work, so he rarely got to talk to anyone before he turned thirteen. He wasn't allowed to have access to the internet until he was a teenager, and by then he was already to inexperienced with talking to people to muster the courage to talk to anyone on the internet.
His parents had heard that children of that time liked manga and anime, so they bought any manga that was at the nearby book store. However, because he lived in America, there was a very limited selection. And it was even more limited as the owner of the store had an obsession with fighting action stories, and only ever sold those, so that was the only genre that Kaz got to read.
As they were the only thing he had, Kaz started to develop his world view based off of those manga anime, so he came to love the idea of training. But that's it, just the idea of it, as since he was still a child, his parents didnt let him do any form of training of his own, as they thought it would injure him. They instead spoiled him, hoping to distract him from it. But it didnt work. They eventually just banned him from manga and anime, and he was stuck living alone in his room for months, fantasizing everyday about becoming like the heroes in those manga.
Eventually, do to never being allowed to do anything, Kaz developed the habit of being extremely lazy. Even when he gained access to the internet and started watching fitness videos, he rarely actually did anything he saw. He did however grow to hate both his parents and himself. He hated that his parents raised him the way they did, and he hated people that had things without actually earning them. And at that moment, he had everything he needed, and yet he never did anything to earn it, so he grew to hate himself as well.
He always "promised" himself that he would start training, and that he would stand up to his parents and demand to be given more freedom, but he never had the courage or will to make himself do either. He had thought that he would stay in that state forever, but, then he woke here.
"How pathetic. You were never able to muster the will to do anything, and now when you finally do, its the will to kill yourself. And all of this is happening because of your greed for more power!" He yelled at himself again, as the ground seemed to be getting closer a lot faster, he was probably only a few seconds away from death.
'No, I didnt do this to get that power. Originally, it was to get a new power and break my limit, but now its much more then that. I did this not to get more power, but to find my courage. There is no worth in having power, if I don't have the balls to use it. In hindsight, there were probably better ways to test my courage, but at least this way I would get two new powers if I succeed.' Kaz thought as he was just ten meters from hitting the ground.
'What was it he said? While he was falling that guy said something.' Kaz thought as he tried to remember what the purpose of falling like this was. He had remembered earlier, but his mind had become to chaotic and he had forgotten. 'That's right! Now I remember! The point of jumping wasn't just to face death, it was to use the will you gained from facing it to cross the line!' He remembered the thoughts of an absurdly muscular red haired youth.
"But." He said softly as a smile formed on his face. "It looks like I have succeeded!"
He watched as the world around him slowed to a crawl, including him, as if everything around him was moving in slow motion. At the same time he felt his body fill with power, as if something was lifted off of his shoulders.
"Near Death Focus!" Kaz yelled with joy as his plan worked. He twisted his body, using all of his bodies power to direct the energy his body had built up by falling into a nearby tree, which shattered from the force before his kick even reached it. But it worked, he was sent flying to the side.
Still in a state of slow motion, he twisted his body at high speed, doing his best to avoid hitting any of the branches and trees. After a few seconds, he landed, hitting a boulder and breaking his arm and a few ribs, but it was nothing that his Ki couldn't fix.
Kaz seemed to be paralyzed for a seconds as he tried to comprehend what just happened. Eventually he seemed to wake up, and as soon as he did, a massive smile spread across his face.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! FUCK! I am NEVER doing that again!" He yelled as he laughed.
"I actually succeeded! I actually gained the near death focus!" He shouted excitedly as he looked up, noticing that it had started to snow again. He smiled excitedly, and focused his mind, remembering the feeling from a few moments ago. At that moment, the snow, which was originally falling slowly, seemed to slow to a crawl, barely moving at all.
"It actually worked! I didnt know if an ability from Baki would work in this world, but it actually did! I guess this is why people in this world are able to move at such high speeds and still maintain their coordination, because they face death all of the time and probably gained this ability." Kaz got up, fully healed from his wounds after just a couple of minutes.
"But more importantly..." He said as he started running to find his clearing. He had aimed in the direction of it when he jumped, so he wasn't that far away and it only took him a few seconds to find it.
He walked over to the center off it, staring at the spear on the ground. He bent over, and with a little resistance at first, picked it up, with one hand. "I have broken my limiter! Facing death so directly allowed me to use all of my strength to escape the situation, and I remember that sensation. Now all I have to do is remember it and I can use all of my strength."
'Baki probably would have gained this ability as well when jumped off of that cliff, but he had already been training for years, so he was probably already able to use a significant amount of his actual strength if not all of it, making any increase in that unnoticeable.' Kaz thought as he began to practice with the spear, lunging forward, stabbing, and slashing down. He felt great about finally being able to lift it, even if he was terrible at using it.
But then as if realizing something else, he stopped and starred at the spear, and tears started to fall from his eyes again. "I just realized, this is my power now. I gained this ability through my own efforts! Before, all of my strength was thanks to my Ki allowing me to adapt to my training faster. But this, this is a power that I earned myself, without the help of anything given to me!"
He fell silent for a moment, not knowing what to think of the situation. He had always wanted to train and get strong like this, but he never thought it would happen due to his laziness. By gaining these two skills, he had achieved his dream. He had earned something through his own, painstaking efforts and putting his own life on the line. And now that he had, he didnt know how to react to it.
"I have gained this power myself, but that's not the end! I have yet to truly earn my healing power, and until I do, it is not truly mine." Summoning his aura around him, he felt a rush of joy and, for the first time in a very long time, pride. "From now on, I vow on my own life that I will do my absolute best to live up to this power that I was given, and truly earn it. Whether it be by becoming the strongest person, or saving this planet from destruction, I will do whatever it takes to earn this power. And if I don't, I will die." He said as he poured his heart into those words.
Using his very limited ability to control Ki, he manipulated it to surround his life force, ready to direct it out of his body the second he breaks his promise. He had taken this Idea from the vows that nen users could use, but he didnt get any stronger from it like they would. Instead, all it did was serve to reassure him that, if he ever tried to break a promise to himself again, it would be the last time he did so.
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