Chapter 32: Hatsu Training

Chapter 32: Hatsu Training

Chapter 32 Hatsu Training

There was about a month and a half between the current date and when the trio decided to head to Yorknew to meet with Kurapika and Leorio. Since they had a nice, quiet island to themselves, Rayleigh's suggestion of developing a Hatsu was well received.

Reaching a mutual consensus, the trio started their Hatsu training on different parts of the island, wanting to outmatch their friends to see who could develop the best one.

Of course, they didn't spend all their time training. Every evening they returned to Mito's house. Rayleigh convinced her to allow him to cook every once in a while and they would have a healthy feast before returning to Gon's room.

Killua convinced Rayleigh and Gon they had to 'research' video games to get ready for Greed Island so he purchased a few for the Joy Station and some extra controllers. In order to 'get ready' for Greed Island, the trio 'researched' video games every night before going to sleep.

The Hatsu Rayleigh desired to create was something to augment his speed. Basically a faster dash. He already had Force Dash but wanted something faster and preferably something he could use to attack.

Force Dash itself is a skill that is difficult to master and has certain restrictions that coincide with the Jedi Code. It allows its user to move at speeds the body should not be capable of through the use of Force Puppetry, but has a flaw Rayleigh considers a massive weakness, though it is not seen that way by the Jedi. Someone cannot use Force Dash to attack. Not even a Jedi Master. The Force Puppetry aspect of Force Dash allowed a user to move without relying on their nerves and muscles, but giving up the reliance on these meant that you could not dictate your own actions in detail. So You could not use Force Dash while swinging your lightsaber or throwing a punch. It was useful for travel and running away, not fighting, very in line with the way of the Jedi.

That, and skills such as Force Dash, Force Valor, and Enhance Attribute: Speed all had limits. They were not hard limits, but there were certain points where a hundred extra years of practice would only see minor improvement overall.

Rayleigh's goal had always been for a Lightspeed Lightsaber-wielding Swordsman build. So what if you could blow up a moon. So what if you could kill anyone with a single spell. If he could attack before his opponent and dodge anything that came at him, wouldn't he be invincible? Even Hisoka needed a moment to set up skills such as Bungee World. If Rayleigh was fast enough, he could strike the Magician down before he could react or set anything up.

Speed was determined and limited by three factors. The speed at which muscles contracted. The speed at which nerves relayed instructions. And external factors such as air resistance and terrain.

Rayleigh's Hatsu would address the first factor. The Enhancement Characteristic his aura applied could be used to reinforce his muscles, increasing their tensile strength, thus increasing the speed at which they could retract. With his currently well-trained body, the upper limit he could withstand for muscle enhancement should allow him to retract his muscles at a speed faster than the speed he'd do so under the puppeteering effect of skills like Force Valor or Force Dash.

But this was only a single factor. He wanted to remove all three limits.

The next step required creating a new Force Technique. Though he would not have to create it from scratch as it was already built into several different techniques, he just had to strip away the extra parts. The Force's ability to direct nerves faster than the body could manually direct them was not something Rayleigh could use his aura to replicate. Even if he spent years figuring out how to enhance the speed of his nerves, it would never become instantaneous.

Allowing the Force to directly control the nerves to fire them at a rate faster than physiologically possible was built into a few skills, but primarily, the Light Side skill Force Valor, and the Dark Side skill Force Rage. The difference between the two was who was issuing the directions. When using Force Valor, the user dictated what they wanted, and their body pretty much went into auto-pilot Force-assisted puppeteering. The Force would direct the body to move in how was best to achieve the user's intentions. This of course had a limit in that the user would find it difficult to ask the Force to guide the body to perform tasks that went against the Will of the Force.

Force Rage on the other hand did not seek direction and guidance from the Force, but moved the body directly through the user's own intentions. Force Rage converted emotions into rage and used that rage to tap into the Dark Side. The power of the Dark Side was then used to overwrite the guidance of the Force and then puppet the user's own body by their own intentions. The stronger the emotions, the faster and stronger they could make their own body through this Dark Side Self-Puppeteering.

Technically, Force Rage was a powerful technique that did not share the limits of Force Valor. A master of Force Rage could exceed a Jedi Master in speed and strength as the limits of Force Rage were only determined by the amount of emotions the user could convert into rage. But the skill was powered by the Dark Side, and the Dark Side could not be used without the price of feeding yourself to it. Rayleigh's goal would not be achieved if he had to feed himself to something, piece by piece, every step of the way on what may end up being an endless journey.

Now even though Rayleigh would not use the power of the Dark Side to power his strength and speed, he did not need it. He only wanted the fundamental part of Force Rage, the part that allowed him to direct his nerves through the Force, bypassing the nervous system and not relying on auto-assisted Force Puppeteering.

This piece of the skill allowed its user to send commands directly through the Force to his body but did not use the Force to assist in powering those actions. For obvious reasons, this skill did not exist as a stand-alone as it was useless. Even if you could send directions using the Force, instantaneously to the correct nerve, the body would have no way of keeping up with the directions without the Force-assisted Puppeteering powered by either the Light Side or the Dark Side. Rayleigh on the other hand could use his Hatsu to power it. A Hatsu which could potentially move him faster than the limit of Force assisted Puppeteering.

Of course, all of that was easier said than done. Even Force Rage still used the Dark Side of the Force and the person's instincts to auto-correct their high-speed movement. The skill Rayleigh intended to implement would only take direction from himself. This was necessary as the Auto-correct from Force assisted Puppetry correlated to the movement granted by the Force. Rayleigh would not be moving using the Force. In order to bypass the limit, he had to remove all the safeguards and benefits of the skill other than speed.

The new skill, something he called Force Program, formed a series of instructions for the body to enact in a specific order. In essence, Rayleigh really was turning himself into an Arcade Fighter. Pressing specific buttons would cause certain actions and the speed he could perform them was limited only to how fast he could press the buttons.

Because he was not using the auto-assistance of the Force or the manual control of his brain, but directly sending signals to his body using the Force, the act of creating a Program was more difficult than learning to walk. Thanks to his experience in stealing Master Dyanameez's Lightsaber Combat forms, this was something he had experience in.

Once complete, a Force Program basically existed as a GIF in his brain of himself performing the action. Once selected, the Force would command his muscles to move in the order contained within the GIF at the speed the GIF performed them. Of course, this only worked if the muscles had a way to keep up with the movements.

Force Program had several downsides and upsides. The first and most obvious downside was the fact that every execution of a specific Force Program would be identical, not taking into account changes in the terrain, the position of the target, or any other factors. He also had to be in the correct starting position when he initiated the program. Without any form of auto-correct, he could run head-first into a wall, trip over a pebble, or get himself killed. This meant he had to create different Programs that took into account as many possible variables as he could or he would be extremely limited in a fight.

The most obvious upside was that this was already the peak of speed. By removing every single restriction and safeguard, the speed at which nerves were sent commands to fire was closer to instantaneous than any Jedi Master or Sith would ever reach. Even the small distance it was from completely instantaneous would be closed through practice and mastery of the technique.

Another less obvious upside was that using the Force to command his nerves, but not power his muscles and movement, was barely considered a use of the Force. If Force Valor was a bucket of water, and Force Rage was a tub of water, then Force Program would be a drop of water. The Force was picky with what you did with it, but such a small usage of the Force barely registered. Unlike when he used Force Valor to enhance his speed and fight, if he just used actions created using Force Program, the Force would pay significantly less attention. This meant as long as he didn't actually kill someone, the Force wouldn't really care. Even killing would not be a big deal as long as he had a good or at least neutral reason for doing so. Maiming would probably be fine.

That took care of the second factor, but Rayleigh also wanted to deal with the third. When Rayleigh moved at his fastest speeds using Enhance Attribute: Speed, Force Valor, or Force Dash, the air in front of him often felt like a wall of cotton being pressed against him at all times. He wanted to remove that wall.

The inspiration for how to do so came from the manga, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. The MC had a specific skill he created to defeat the heroes so that his evil mistress would not be stopped and could destroy the world. The skill was called, Air Space Control: Babylon.

Babylon used telekinesis to thin the air around him to make him faster while making the air around his opponents denser to slow them down. Rayleigh already had a skill that could solidify the air around a target to slow them down, Force Stasis. Rayleigh wanted to make a skill that would, in effect, create a vacuum tunnel for Rayleigh to pass through.

Solidifying air using telekinesis was not the same as making it denser or thinner, so although he could use parts of Force Stasis, he would not be able to use it as a base. Thankfully, he had another skill that made for a perfect base for such an atmosphere-controlling skill. Force Muffle.

Force Muffle controlled the air around him to negate the passage of sound. It was not a huge leap to take the principle of air control from that skill and apply it to making the air in front of him thinner.

In its prototype stage, Vacuum Tunnel would create a cylinder of space extending from him that he could move through which had a lower density of air. Once he got used to it, he could advance the prototype to something more, like making the air behind him denser and using the difference in pressure to propel himself forward.

The best part about Vacuum Tunnel was that, since he used Force Muffle as a base, he could ensure that he would not cause an annoyingly loud sonic boom once he reached the point he could break the sound barrier while traveling within it.

Such a skill had downsides of course. Extended usage of Vacuum Tunnels meant less air to breathe. He would need to use Breath Control during prolonged usage to prevent himself from passing out due to lack of oxygen.

With his Hatsu, Force Program, and Vacuum Tunnel, he was certain he would be able to far surpass his previous speed.

Thankfully, training such a complex skill only needed one thing. A hill. Gon's home of Whale Island looked like a whale sitting on the water, and the hump of that whale was a very large, perfect hill for Rayleigh to practice on.

Running downhill was easy on the muscles, but hard on the nerves. Eventually, you reached a speed where your nerves could not keep up with your legs. So Rayleigh sprinted downhill over and over again to create the image of how fast his legs would be going once he exceeded the limit of his nerves. This was necessary as he could not use the image of Force Dash, since Force Dash's puppetry-assisted speed did not use muscles properly. So he needed an image of how his muscles actually moved and worked when moving at speeds beyond what his nerves could take him.

Running uphill was easy on the nerves, but hard on the muscles. Rayleigh would maintain his Ren while sprinting uphill as fast as he could while maintaining the image of his aura enhancing his muscles to make them retract faster. This simple action would allow his aura's enhancement attribute to be naturally applied toward his movement speed.

These two exercises would create the prototype pieces of his Hatsu and Program. Vacuum Tunnel required meditation and insight to create, but Rayleigh's multiple Wills meant he could do so while training. One of his Wills controlled his body and focused on creating his Hatsu. One paid attention to his movement downhill and focused on creating his first Program. One meditated on creating the skill, Force Tunnel. And the last was practicing Contrary Belief to split itself. It would split in another week or so and by the time they went to Yorknew in a month and a half, Rayleigh was confident he would be able to split the next one as well and have six Wills.

A week after they arrived, tragedy struck. At least for Gon. When Mito learned the trio spent every night playing video games, she gave Gon six textbooks and twenty workbooks.

Gon was homeschooled, but unlike Rayleigh, Gon had not completed his entire educational coursework. Mito insisted that Gon catch up with the coursework he had missed out on for the last six months and also insisted that he continue with his coursework after he left.

It still wasn't as fast as he wanted. Imagine driving a car with wheels that only performed a single rotation every time you pressed a button. So instead of keeping your foot on the gas pedal, you had to press that button over and over. The car would only go as fast as you pressed the button, and while pressing the button, you also had to steer. That was what it was like using Overdrive while running, though Overdrive was obviously more complex since he had dozens of different buttons and if he pressed the next one too early, too late, or pressed the wrong one, he would crash.

Still, none of these flaws were impossible to get around. This was still a prototype, after all, a proof of concept. And as a proof of concept, it worked. Theoretically, it had no limit. So what if he could not push the button super fast? He could just train to leap further with each use. Once he got used to judging the terrain, he'd be able to predict which button to press next faster. Once he became experienced in judging which button to press next, he could mentally press lines of buttons sequentially instead of one after another. It was the difference between 1 then 2 then 3 then 4, and 1234. Eventually, he'd be able to press lines of buttons at the speed he was pressing a single button now.

The only thing he found he was missing was a way to see further ahead. Once his Ren was strengthened, he could add Gy. Once he got the hang of strengthening the aura on specific parts of his body instead of his entire body, he could use K and Ry to maximize the enhancement of his muscles to further increase his speed. At that point, he suspected he might be able to break multiple folds of the sound barrier if his muscles didn't explode.

Even now, Rayleigh was only using a normal Ren since this was still just a prototype. When he started creating Force Programs for high-speed attacks, he would start partitioning his aura to his legs and arms to further enhance the speed of his movement and Lightsaber swing.

Rayleigh started traveling parallel to the mountain again, but in the opposite direction. About five minutes into the run, the Field Boss found him.

Rayleigh's danger sense picked up the threat to his life, but there were no monsters on the ground. A quick lookup revealed the source of the danger.

An ugly wyvern-like monstrosity was flying through the air at an impressive speed toward his location. It had a round head, a large jaw, and massive, pterodactyl-like wings.

Seeing the challenge, Rayleigh smiled. That certainly explained why there were no camps near the mountain, it was this thing's territory.

Not seeing any point in further exploration this far from the mountain, Rayleigh turned and ran toward the Mission's objective. Unsurprisingly, the wyvern was not able to keep pace. It was certainly fast, incredibly fast, but it had to travel through the air, while Rayleigh's Vacuum Tunnel bypassed the air.

Rayleigh didn't know if this thing killed him in his last attempt or if he ran away and hid from it until the Mission ran out of time. Either way, this time would be different.

Since he was getting ahead of it, every couple of minutes, Rayleigh would stop, catch a breath, and use Gy to get a closer look at the flying monster. It was still chasing him even though it should know that it would not catch him. This was useful information. Players were essentially surveillance drones, so everything Rayleigh saw would be known by the Tavern. He hoped getting more info on the Field Boss would be worth more bonus points.

Because of the flying field boss, there was no safe path from the starting location to the mountain, so Rayleigh did not look for one. If there was a safe path he would have gotten more points for finding it, but since there was not, he would get his points by getting more details on the Field Boss.

Thankfully Rayleigh did not have to climb the mountain, just reach the base of it. Maybe explore the base a bit to look at the color of the rocks to check for the presence of valuable minerals. That too would increase his bonus. If he did have to climb the mountain, his current Programs would not afford him the speed to outrun this flying monster, something he'd have to change later.

[Mission Complete. Would you like to return to the Tavern?

Yes | No.]

The completion pop-up appeared the moment Rayleigh arrived at the base of the mountain. He still had about half a minute before the Field Boss arrived, so he used Gy on the mountain, the rocks around, and picked up a few rocks near the base and smashed them against each other. Once the wyvern arrived, Rayleigh then started using Overdrive to run parallel to the base of the mountain. He still had 2 hours. Why would he stop now?

Rayleigh eventually found himself back in the Tavern, his hand on the now blank paper.

[Trailblazer! Completed

Awarded 50 Points

Awarded 90 Bonus Points]

Rayleigh smiled. Bonus points were not easy to get, so earning nearly double the Mission's value worth of points was a great haul.

"Hey brat, come here."

Rayleigh heard Red's voice from the bar. Was he there when Rayleigh went to take the Mission? He didn't recall.

Rayleigh headed down the stairs to the bar and Red handed him a glass of Beer which was gratefully taken. Regardless of how much of a battle junkie he was, being chased by an ugly wyvern for two hours still grated on his nerves.

Red stated, "Two things I need to tell you. First, most of your bonus points came from what you observed on that mountain. There was evidence of some valuable data you got lucky enough to spot. That ugly flying puppy was just a low-grade Field Boss we'll probably put a 90 Point Bounty Mission to hunt in the future. Getting chased around by something like that isn't something to brag about, so don't get cocky. Next, about that loophole, you think you found."

Rayleigh froze up. Was the Tavern going to lock his memory of what he found? He didn't want to get tangled up with the Phantom Troupe!

Red stared him down and watched him squirm for a moment before chuckling. "It's not a loophole. Metaknowledge is sealed to prevent everyone from doing the same thing. There are plenty of ways around this which are allowed, so you're fine to keep doing what you're doing."

Rayleigh asked, "Wait, that's okay? What about changing the plot?"

"Hmm. Well, to your first question. Yes, it is okay. All Jedi Players have the potential to do it. Wizard Players can also access their Metaknowledge through Divination, which some will figure out when they take that elective and find out that what they are predicting is Harry Potter Canon instead of Harry Potter's actual future. It's basically an Easter Egg, and only happens if you try to predict the future of the Main Characters, so this is also a way to confirm who is a main character and who is not."

Rayleigh asked, "So if a Jedi tries to predict Anakin's future, they will see Darth Vader coming into being in a world without the Players?"

"Yup. Though none of them are even close to strong enough in the Force to see that, and by the time they are, it will probably be too late. You are the only exception, but since Anakin's future is Metaknowledge, you won't remember to check and won't spoil it for everyone."

Rayleigh rolled his eyes. "So Anakin is screwed?"

Red answered, "Pretty much. Your second question, about changing the plot, is a bit tricky to answer. Every world has something which will happen, and nothing any Player can do will change that. Any action to prevent it will be met with an action that causes it to happen again. Those are, Goku dying in the fight against Raditz. Kaguya tsutsuki getting revived. Voldemort being brought back to life. The Ant King dying after his fight with Netero. Ace getting killed in the Summit War of Marineford. And Anakin falling to the Dark Side along with the execution of Order 66."

Rayleigh asked, "Why?"

Red lifted an eyebrow and stated, "I ain't answering the why for each. Pick one."

"Umm. Why does Goku have to die? Some Players should be stronger than Raditz at that point."

Red nodded, "Most likely, but if any Player wants to learn Kaio-Ken, they can only learn it from Goku after Goku dies and is brought back to life. Players who die in Dragonball can't get revived by the Dragonballs since we bring them back to life and erase their previous character. So the only way for Players to learn Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb is to learn them from Goku once he returns to life after training with King Kai. There are also good reasons for the other events that have to happen, but I don't feel like explaining them all to you. Be happy with what you got."

With that, Red got up and left to attend to the other Players. Rayleigh finished his glass and found a table with familiar faces to chat with. He had a lot to think about and he was going to Yorknew tomorrow.

*Author's Note*

Yes, I'm stealing Killua's Godspeed before he makes it. I justified doing it with the introduction of Programs from the earlier chapters. Rayleigh will be ensuring Gon and Killua get stronger faster than canon, but this will be balanced out by other Players in Greed Island.