บท 480: Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock

(A.N. Firstly I meant to post this chapter before now, but accidentally deleted the entire thing after I finished it so I had to retype it. Secondly in the last chapter I used the word 'Smashing' instead of 'Crushing' for Alex's new martial arts style, and I just wanted to say I'll be using crushing since it sounds better in my opinion. There were different translations between the anime and manga, and I got confused since I've been rewatching and then rereading OPM.)

Within the space-time orb used by Alex and his wives, one could find a wide variety of environments in the form of the numerous islands and floating islands that populated the otherwise endless sea that surrounded the grand villa.

One island was where Alex's children did most of their training, which was also home to a few weaker monsters to help introduce them to combat. Another was where Ingvild resided, and often practiced her singing and dancing along with her peerage and other idols of Asora. Another had been turned into a sort of turtle sanctuary that was lovingly maintained by one of the Pandoran combat maids, Ticy.

Dotting the skies though were a significantly larger number of flying islands that were notably more varied in their purpose and design. One was a massive graveyard that was plunged into perpetual shadow, and who's only actual structure was a giant mausoleum in the center where the owner lovingly maintained the corpses she used in battle.

Another was a peaceful shrine, which was home to a number of tamed monsters and creatures with an affinity for lightning, cared for by a certain Priestess of Lightning herself. It held a somewhat similar design to another island that was home to hundreds of cats, as well as the cat-like race known as Exceed from Earthland, and members of the lion-like race known as Snackians from Universe Seven.

These and dozens, if not hundreds, more dotted the skies, all owned and maintained lovingly by the women who had been 'claimed' by a certain man. The same man who was currently on his own floating island, one that seemed relatively...plain on the outside by comparison.

Dense vegetation covered the island, broken only by the occasional trail that curved through the forests and mountains, and a single location where a perfectly maintained stone square sat.

"HA!"

"RA!"

"HIYAH!"

And on that square was the man who owned the island, who cried out as he moved his body in various ways, strictly following the diagrams shown on an open manual nearby.

The cover of said manual read, 'Advanced Movements for the Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock'.

As could be deduced from the title on the cover, it was one of the numerous manuals Alex had received from the sudden quest he and every user of the Chatroom had received. Within it were the most advanced movements and techniques used in the FFWCR martial style, a style of fighting said to contain the perfect blend of offense and defense.

The basic use of this style was to redirect nearly any kind of attack, before returning it back at the opponent with twice the power. It was a powerful style that allowed its creator, a hero and martial arts master known as Bang(SilverFang), to become the number three S-Class hero in their world, only falling behind the most powerful esper on the planet, Tatsumaki, and the number one hero who possessed powers and abilities that far exceeded all the others in the S-Class, Blast.

While Alex may not necessarily NEED the benefits the FFWCR style gave for defense, it was still a powerful weapon for when he faced opponents stronger than himself, such as Beerus. Even if Alex wasn't satisfied with the FFWCR style, his new Chatroom store had manuals for every conceivable fighting style, both armed and unarmed.

And no matter what fighting style Alex purchased in the future, he planned to spread copies of it throughout Asora, and Pangea once he was finished with it himself. Of course, the only people Alex would actually teach would be his children and the students he already had, as he had no time to dedicate to teaching hundreds of students different forms of Martial arts.

But as Alex moved his body in ways that he was unused to, developing a thin sheen of sweat as he did so, he had a broad smile on his face.

'I'd forgotten how fun it was to train seriously!' Alex exclaimed mentally, making Lauren chuckle from amusement at his enthusiasm.

Ever since he'd evolved himself into a LSSJ Alex had been unable to train, as his strength had increased to the point where he couldn't control it, and risked damaging those around him and his surroundings. So Alex had to place the seals on his body to restrict his strength while slowly allowing him to adapt to it, and stopped training altogether with the exception for when he sparred wth Elaine.

Now that he could buy all the manuals he wanted though, Alex could keep training without unnecessarily increasing his strength.

Of course, it wasn't only manuals that Alex could buy from his Chatroom shop. He was also able to purchase upgrades to the Chatroom, like creating different groups, giving people the option to send each other private messages instead of in the main chat, sending actual items to one another, and most desirable of all, giving him the ability to actually transport himself to other members of the Chatroom.

Naturally this last option was the most enticing to Alex, as well as the most expensive, since it would allow Alex to travel to the world's where Yang, Saya, Hestia, Robin, Cynthia, Ty Lee, and Tatsumaki were. This would give Alex a supreme advantage over the other remaining contestants, and he wouldn't have to potentially wait years to meet with the girls in person.

Amongst them, two in particular took the higher priority.

Hestia, who had been nicknamed Bestia, was all alone in her world since no one had joined her Familia in the years since she descended to the mortal world. She had friends, like smith goddess Hephaestus, but the fact that she was on the chat any time she wasn't sleeping or working in the potato shop showed just how alone she truly was.

While that wouldn't always be the case, Alex didn't know where in the timeline Hestia was, and so he decided that they couldn't rely on Bell showing up, if he was even still going to. But even then, there was still someone else who took priority over Hestia.

Saya was from a world known as Highschool of the Dead, a world that would be plagued by a zombie apocalypse in the near future. Unfortunately though, Alex didn't know exactly when the apocalypse would occur.

For all he knew it could happen the very next day, or a week later, or even a month, and Alex had no intention to wait around for it to start.

Neither did Saya in fact, as when he told her about it she began making preparations such as learning how to use firearms, drawing up fortifications for her family's estate, and using her parent's wealth and political connections to acquire as many firearms and weapons as possible to keep in her storage ring.

Meanwhile, even if she hadn't told them what was going on since it would make her sound crazy, Saya's parents had obviously noticed her preparations, and began looking into whatever their daughter might've been preparing for while making their own preparations. They didn't know what they were preparing for, but both trusted Saya's intelligence and decision making absolutely, even if she herself was unaware of it.

And when she wasn't making preparations, or attending school, Saya was completing every single quest she could in order to try and buy something new on the store before the apocalypse started. It was slow going since her quests were fairly small compared to everyone else's, since she lived in a 'normal' world, but Saya was using her intellect to grind out as many as she could in the shortest time possible.

Unless it kicked off before then though, Saya only needed to wait until the end of the tournament before Alex would ask Grant or Beth to open the portal to her world, as they had both saved theirs up.

In the here and now though, Alex finished the last of his sets of movements, breaking form as he conjured a chair to sit on as he took a small break.

"Let's see what's going on." He muttered to himself as he summoned the Chatroom, which he had put on silent so as to not be disturbed during his training.

[DING!]

Cynthia: and this is a Chansey

Ty Lee: it's so cute!

Bestia: i wanna cuddle it!

Yang: I still think the Luxray was cooler

Alex smiled wryly as he watched the stream of comments regarding Cynthia's newest catch, every one of which she posted a picture of to the Chatroom so everyone could learn more about Pokemon.

For some reason her quests focused more on her catching Pokemon than anything, such as certain numbers of a certain species. As champion she more than had the resources needed to take care of them of course, while she also said that she let the resident Pokemon professor examine them to his leisure as well, professor Rowen.

With how prominent the Pokemon professors were in her world, she had also sent them a picture of Rowen with his assistant, Dawn, who Alex was surprised to learn appeared in her late teens. It was about then that he learned the differences between the Pokemon games/anime and real life, namely that the idea of sending ten year olds out to fend for themselves as they captured and trained dangerous monsters was absolutely ridiculous.

Cynthia also informed Alex that the standard age for trainers to begin their journey was seventeen, while some would be fortunate to begin at sixteen in certain circumstances. She had however been confused when Alex asked her about a trainer called Ash Ketchum, with Cynthia stating that she didn't find a trainer with such a name in any of the region's directories, but she said she'd let him know if she stumbled across him.

[DING!]

Alex: I think a Chansey would be a perfect Pokemon for Bestia to have around, they're known to be very nurturing and caring. Plus I know she'd love to snuggle one as she slept.

Bestia: I WOULD!

Alex chuckled as he watched Bestia plead with Cynthia to promise to give her a Chansey if the chance ever came up, which the champion readily agreed to since she already figured that a lot of the Pokemon she was capturing now would go to Alex and his wives/children in the future.

Bestia wasn't the only one though, as many of the women cooed over the numerous pictures of Pokemon that Cynthia had sent them, and the majority were already deciding which ones they wanted to capture for themselves once they traveled to her world. Lucy especially was excited of a whole world dedicated to taming and befriending monsters, while Alex could already imagine women like Akeno with a whole legion of electric type Pokemon, Eri with the ghost types, and Asia being surrounded by the dragon types.

Cynthia wasn't the only one teaching them more about the creatures of their world though, as Yang had posted numerous videos of herself fighting Grimm alongside her sister, Ruby.

Yang had of course told Ruby about the Chatroom after the previous incident, which the innocent reaper had believed instantly as she begged to be invited to it as well. Naturally, Yang had refused without even seeing if that were possible due to the perverseness of the Chatroom members.

So Ruby settled on accompanying her sister as they completed Yang's quests together, in which the chat always received videos of Yang pounding Grimm into paste with her newly acquired Superhuman Strength, or even chucking large boulders at flying Nevermore.

They also received daily videos from Ty Lee, who proved Yang's point about the perversion in the Chatroom by posting videos of herself performing her daily stretches, which were actually yoga, in the nude. While those were definitely popular, so too were the videos she posted during the circus' shows, which depicted the numerous unique creatures from her world, as well as the skillful bending from her nation.

Of the new girls that he was interacting with, Alex was unsure of how to deal with Ty Lee the most since she was essentially an antagonist for almost the entirety of the series ATLA. Then again, that was only the case because of her fear of Azula, Ty Lee's childhood friend that was also the princess of the Fire Nation, who was legitimately insane.

Alex indirectly learned through her though that the Avatar, Aang, had yet to awaken after his century long slumber within a giant iceberg, so he had time to think of something.

Tatsumaki was proving to be the most entertaining of the girls Alex was interacting with, as she was completely unused to dealing with someone as shameless as Alex, who openly flirted with her constantly to make her lose her cool.

There had been quite the buzz when the girls found out about her being a hero though, as well as the world she belonged to being filled with them as an actual profession. They had been curious as to how this was going to play out with Alex's past regarding 'Heroes'(Kouki), as well as his open disdain for them.

He surprised them though when he said that he actually admired the heroes of Tatsumaki's world a bit, since the vast majority were actually just ordinary citizens who wanted to make a difference. With natural disasters and monsters constantly threatening the lives of the entire human race in her world, there was very little of the baseless tripe regarding things like 'justice', and more of the heroes actually fighting monsters and trying to help people during disasters. (A.N. Mumen Rider fans, where you at?)

Though Tatsumaki simply sneered that they were all weaklings who were always in her way.

And then finally there was the hardest person to get to open up, Nico Robin.

Robin had lived almost her entire life on the run as the World Government pursued her with a fury, while all of those she'd tried seeking shelter with wound up betraying her once the heat from the Marines came down onto them. Even when Alex swore he'd destroy anyone dumb enough to say a single thing against her, Robin didn't seem to believe him as she just politely said her thanks.

Her reservations did waver slightly when the girls told stories of their travels and Alex's achievements over the years, which also included him killing gods and toppling entire empires almost overnight. What really caught her attention though was when Alex told her he had the same Devil Fruit as her new captain, Monkey D. Luffy, which was actually a mythical Zoan type fruit of the sun god Nika.

Robin had then imagined Alex stretching and moving the way her captain did, even with his muscular and thick body, and chuckled in amusement from the image.

Overall the seven girls were getting along with Alex and the girls amongst his harem, especially once they all found those who were like them. Saya for example spent much of her time talking with Sona, Lala, the Bulmas, and Athena, while Robin and Cynthia would spend quite a while talking due to their shared love of history and myths.

Yang got along well with the girls who liked fighting, like Shia or the Saiyans, which Alex expected due to her being so similar to a Saiyan to begin with, while both Bestia and Ty Lee got along with the majority of the girls in general. The biggest outlier amongst them was Tatsumaki, which was understandable since she didn't care for interacting with those she considered weak. Alex was an exception, since he was someone capable of opening a Chatroom spanning the Omniverse, but he would often tease her...

Speaking of the chibi esper...

[DING!]

Tatsumaki: OMFG

Tatsumaki: I just read his mind, and KING IS A FRAUD!!!

"Pft-" Alex fought the urge to laugh at Tatsumaki's uncharacteristic exclamation, resulting in him choking on his spit momentarily as he tried to recover.

Asia: who is King again?

Tatsumaki: he's a S-Class hero, and the strongest man on earth!

Tatsumaki: ...

Tatsumaki: or, at least he's SUPPOSED to be!

Bulma: is he like Mr. Satan?

Alex: kinda, except Satan was purposely lying to boost his reputation and fame. King is just a severe victim of 'wrong place, wrong time'.

Alex: the guy's just stopped trying to explain himself because no one ever listens anyways. In fact, they keep making up stories about him for the most idiotic things so his legend keeps growing.

Yang: that's like a whole new level of stupidity...

Alex: and that's partially why Tatsumaki can't expose him. If she did then the hero association would have to answer for trying to make a regular civilian fight monsters, as well as wasting the money given to them through donations.

Tatsumaki: well there's that, plus if I did then I would also expose my new mind reading powers! And trust me, there's a LOT that these executives don't want me knowing...

Shia: why are there so many rich assholes in the world's we go to?

Alex: because wealth supposedly grants authority and prestige, so people with it believe they're better than everyone else and that rules don't apply to them.

Tatsumaki: they're about to learn that's not the case when I 'accidentally' find all their secret hangouts!

Alex: just be careful. It wouldn't be surprising if they tried to turn everyone against you if you pissed them off too much.

Tatsumaki: HUMPH! Who do you think I am!?!

Tatsumaki: there's nothing they can do to me, so I don't need your concern!

Alex: if you say so. Just be careful, love you!

Tatsumaki: !!!

...

Love you!

"I-I-IDIOOOOT!!!" A petite esper screamed at that moment as those two words echoed within her head, over and over again as if they were being played on repeat.

"But I told you everything I know!" Complained the man who was currently suspended upside down by her telekinetic ability, the head of the underground slave trade that she was currently dismantling.

Turning her attention back to him as the man spoke, her cheeks tinged red from embarrassment, Tatsumaki then said to the man's horror,

"That's all? You can die then." Then, with perhaps more force than she ever used before, Tatsumaki clenched her fist as the subtle green glow surrounding the man intensified.

Without even being able to scream, the man's body was suddenly crushed almost instantly, until he became nothing more than a bloody sphere of condensed flesh and bone that was only the size of a small ball.

Letting the fleshy ball thud to the ground with a wet squelch, Tatsumaki turned her attention to the rows of cages and cells, where dozens of people were confined that had been considered missing in the wake of monster attacks and natural disasters. With a twitch of her finger the doors were blasted off their hinges, leaving the cells open for their occupants to escape.

"If you expect me to hold your hands from here then don't hold your breaths. I already killed everyone, so get out and find your way back yourselves." She stated coldly to the captives, even as one of them fell to their knees before her, tears in his eyes as he said over and over,

"Thank you miss Tornado! Thank you!" As the rest of the captives joined him in thanking her, Tatsumaki clicked her tongue while trying not to recall her own experience with being kept in a cell.

"Just shut up!" She eventually snapped at them angrily, shutting everyone as she ranted at them, "Instead of thanking me you all should just get out of here! And next time don't expect a hero to come and save you!"

Her piece said, Tatsumaki used her telekinetic powers to create an opening in the underground facility large enough for her to fly through, and left the captives behind as she tried to forget her childhood. Of course, THAT just made her recall what Alex told her before.

"YOU IDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs suddenly, while many of the mountains around her began to crumble and dissolve in the wake of her rampant psychic powers.

***

Ty Lee: her poor maidenly heart...

Yang: she does seem like the type of person who's fun to tease.

Alex: RIGHT????

Bestia: what about me?!?!

Alex: I love you too Bestia

Bestia: teehee

Saya: so how many women have you swindled into joining your harem like that?

Alex: don't know. But feel free to count when you join them

Saya: cocky bastard, aren't you?

Alex: I'm pretty sure you're already aware I have an abundance of cock

Yang: ...

Robin: ...

Ty Lee: 😃

Bestia: 😱

Cynthia: 😳

Saya: no comment...

Anne: you really enjoy having all these new girls to tease, don't you husband 🙂

Alex: ...

Alex: no comment

...

Alex spent a few more minutes interacting with the girls on the Chatroom, with Cynthia occasionally posting a new picture of some kind of Pokemon she'd encountered, and Lucy doing the same with monsters she'd tamed from Spira, as well spirits she was contracted with. Some of the girls posted the progress they were making in their respective training and quests, while Mikan and Haruna posted pictures of the different dishes they were preparing for dinner that night.

Those two and the rest of the women who worked the kitchen, mainly Pandora who didn't join the Valkyries, had all purchased various cooking abilities after quickly building up points through having everyone eat their food. Though they had mostly bought skills and knowledge of certain characters from an anime Alex knew of but never watched, called Food Wars, they all had their sights set on the divine level cooking skills that costed significantly more than the ones they had already bought.

But even with the skills they had just acquired, Alex could practically smell the food that Mikan and Haruna were preparing though the image of the Chatroom, and his mouth began watering in anticipation. He wasn't the only one though, as numerous comments started pouring in from his wives and lovers about looking forward to eating tonight's dishes.

Leaving a single comment about how delicious it looked, Alex closed the Chatroom as his expression turned more serious. It was time to resume training.

"Elaine. Kusu." He said to the empty air, before the two aforementioned women appeared before him.

"My liege." Kusu said as she bowed respectfully, while Elaine simply silently bowed her head.

"I think it's time to kick my training of the FFWCR up a notch." Alex told them, making both women stand up straighter as they awaited his orders.

"Kusu, prepare the stage and an opponent for me to spar against. Elaine, I need you to restrict my strength so I can't rely on it too much."

""Of course."" They said at the exact same second, before both women moved to do as he commanded.

Elaine appeared behind Alex and silently placed a hand on his back, sealing his strength as she did so until he was even weaker than he was in his base form. Kusu on the other hand tapped the butt of her scepter on the ground, creating a bubble that enveloped all three of them as she transported them to another space within the scepter itself that mirrored Alex's island. Separate from the one Vegeta and Beerus were in of course.

Once within the space, Kusu tapped her scepter on the ground a second time, producing a number of shadowy figures that surrounded them while a single one stepped forward.

When Elaine had finished restricting his strength, Alex looked up and smiled wryly when he saw who his first opponent was going to be.

"I think full strength Frieza when he fought Son Goku for the first time would be an adequate opponent. Don't you my liege?" Kusu said as she and Elaine both stepped back, while Alex got into his stance and said,

"Perfect." Kusu smiled mischievously at that, before adding as an afterthought,

"Oh yes, they'll all also be fighting with the intent to kill. Is that agreeable?" The corner of Alex's mouth twitched upwards in amusement at her 'innocent' question, before he said replied with the same tone as before,

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Nodding in affirmation, Kusu and Elaine watched as the shadowy Frieza lunged at Alex suddenly while releasing a shout. Meanwhile Alex's hands were moving around him in a way that resembled the gentle flow of a stream, while illusionary trails of light blue followed in their wake.

***

"Are you sure Anne?" Akeno asked the Dragon Empress hesitantly, to which Anne nodded as she stated,

"Yes! Alex told me before that Fire Benders can also bend and redirect lightning, but he couldn't remember the details of it so I could never try! But now I have the scrolls depicting the way to do so, so I want to try redirecting it to get a feel of lighting to start with!"

As she said that, Anne looked down once again at the scrolls that she had received as a reward for the sudden quest they had all participated in several days prior. Within them were movements and techniques for Fire Bending that she never would've conceived of, as well as the secrets for bending lightning.

When Alex took a look at them and saw who their creator was, he told Anne with an uncharacteristically serious expression and tone that she better treat the scrolls like a worldly treasure, and even made her raise up a cup of Ginseng tea with him to honor him. She didn't know who Iroh was, but from Alex's behavior Anne figured it must've been someone important.

Back in the present, Anne was currently trying to get Akeno to 'attack' her with lightning to train her lightning redirection, which she hoped would help her generate her own lightning in the near future. However Akeno was having some doubts.

"I'll tone down the power so if it doesn't work then it the attack won't be fatal. After that we can try increasing the power bit by bit." She said eventually, not wanting to accidentally vaporize Anne if she made a mistake with the technique. While Akeno DID enjoy using her lightning in the bedroom and during fights with her sadistic nature, this was NOT a situation where she could afford to make a mistake.

Though disappointed she wasn't going to be able to experience Akeno's full power lightning just yet, Anne still took her stance as she waited for her to start.

Raising her hand, arcs of lighting appeared along Akeno's fingers as slowly built up in power until she pointed at Anne suddenly, and a powerful bolt of golden lightning shot out at her.

With two fingers out in front of her, Anne drew the lightning into herself through them as the current arced down her arm, and into her stomach. This was the most critical part, as if Anne faltered at all while the lighting was within her body, such as letting it connect with her heart, it could kill her.

Even as she reached this stage though Anne's focus never wavered, as she then directed the lightning up to her other arm, and shot it in a different direction off to the side of Akeno.

*CRACKLE!*

*KABOOM!*

The bolt of lightning crashed into one of the Torii gates surrounding Akeno's shrine, destroying it completely and leaving behind only a few lumps of charred wood.

"That was amazing!" Akeno declared as Anne slumped down and tried to catch her breath, not at all expecting that redirecting lighting would be so 'intense'. Despite that though, there was a wide smile on Anne's face from the rush she felt controlling lightning, which was considered the strongest art of Fire Bending.

"How did it feel?" Akeno asked as she repaired the Torii gate, to which Anne replied after she caught her breath,

"It was intense, but exhilarating at the same time! Let's do it again!" Agreeing whole heartedly, as she was always curious about more ways to control lightning, Akeno began charging up a second bolt that was a slightly more powerful than the last, while Anne hurriedly got into the proper position and stance.