"I didn't anticipate this place becoming so popular..." remarked Vahn, entering his workshop around noon to find more than a dozen people inside eating lunch together. He wasn't too surprised to see Wendy, Carla, and Fran present, as they were Bonney's Party members, but alongside them were Ghislaine, Riko, Nanachi, Mitty, Prushka, and, likely as a result of his girlfriend's presence, Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai.
"Vahn! You came~!" chimed Riko, beaming from ear to ear while holding a half-eaten, seaweed-compacted rice ball nearly as large as her head with both hands.
"Papa Two~!" appended Prushka, bouncing to her feet and leaping across the room with her hands and arms fully extended and her body parallel to the ground. Vahn felt she was overreacting as it had only been two days since she last pounced on him, but he dutifully caught and guided her into his embrace, allowing her to squeeze him tightly as if she were attempting to fuse with his body.
With everyone else rising from their lunch spread to approach or observe him from afar, Vahn met Riko's gaze, raised his left brow, and asked, "Did Faputa not come with you...?"
Shaking her head, Riko explained, "Faputa considers herself the Guardian of Utopia, so she only leaves when there are plenty of people to defend it. I did tell her I would remind you to visit, though."
"I'll be sure to," affirmed Vahn, using his left hand to caress Riko's head as she got into range. He used his right to pat Prushka's back, but it seemed she had no intention of releasing him as she nuzzled his neck, causing her large, fluffy, and feathery ear to brush the right side of his face.
"Well, aren't you popular..." noted Bonney, approaching with crossed arms and a pronounced, brow-twitching frown. She was aware that Vahn had a harem, but seeing one of her peers clinging to him like a barnacle irritated her considerably.
"More than most, less than some..." responded Vahn, grabbing Prushka's sides and prying her off of him with a bit of effort. She and many of Riko's group had managed to reach C-Rank, so her grip strength was very nearly 300kg—more if she entered her awakened state.
"Papa Two..." muttered Prushka, her ears drooping sadly as Vahn set her down. Fortunately, before she could become too forlorn, he grabbed the sides of her face, massaging her cheeks and scratching near the base of her ears with his fingers as he gently stated, "No need to be sad. I'll help you brush your hair and fur later. For now, be a good girl."
"Mmn...Papa Two's hands are big and warm..." purred Prushka, grabbing Vahn's wrists and narrowing her eyes contentedly. Her large feathery ears flitted like a bird preparing to take off, but while it appeared like she might take flight at any moment, she remained terrestrial.
"Is there a reason everyone's gathered here...?" asked Vahn, removing his hands from Prushka's face and firmly tousling her very fluffy hair. His gaze briefly met Carla's, but his question was directed at Bonney—the de facto leader of the group, even with the adult Ghislaine present.
Shrugging, Bonney revealed, "We were already making stuff before you arrived. Since you're always busy with random crap, we figured we might as well put this place to good use. Someone has to..."
"I see..." muttered Vahn, exhaling faintly from his nose. Then, passing his gaze over everyone present, he nodded affirmingly and added, "It's not a bad idea. Thanks to your status as Ascendees, you can acquire Skills and track your progress far more easily than most. And if you choose to refine your skills here, I will naturally support you."
"But only if you're serious," tacked on Bonney, her expression serious and tone firm as she decreed, "That means coming here to work a minimum of five days a week. If you can't commit, then you're a distraction to those of us aiming to become Masters."
"Excellently said, Bonney-chan! Let us set these furnaces ablaze with the passion of youth and become the greatest Blacksmiths of our respective worlds!" exclaimed Guy, striking a series of poses similar to a Super Sentai Ranger, finishing with his left leg raised—bent at the knee—and his arms forming a circle around his head.
"I told you not to call me Bonney-chan...!" exclaimed Bonney, pulling out and throwing a ball peen hammer at Guy's head. The passionate Taijutsu prodigy could have easily dodged it, but before it reached his forehead, it ceased traveling.
"Have I finally awakened my hidden power...?" Guy muttered, swallowing hard and sweating as the hammer had stopped less than two centimeters from the center of his brows.
"It's obvious that Vahn-sama intervened..." remarked Kakashi, his voice flat as he rolled his eyes, prompting the thirteen-year-old Kurenai to cover her mouth and giggle. This, in turn, caused Asuma, standing cross-armed, to grimace. However, since Kakashi had made it clear that he harbored no romantic feelings for Kurenai, the fourteen-year-old Sarutobi—son of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen—closed his eyes and calmed himself by inhaling a deep breath through his nose.
"This is a place for self-improvement and creating new things..." stated Vahn, pulling the ball peen hammer to his right hand and handing it back to Bonney with a smile as he added, "And that starts with respecting our tools and materials."
Stunning nearly everyone present, causing Riko to cover her mouth and outright gasp from surprise, Bonney snorted but ultimately accepted the hammer with an acquiescent, "You're right...I'll be more careful from now on..."
"I believe in you..." affirmed Vahn, nodding. Then, before their stunned reactions caused Bonney to lash out from embarrassment, Vahn quickly ameliorated the tense atmosphere by smiling broadly and asking, "Now, who's ready for their first flying lesson~?" with a hint of whimsy.
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Though it wasn't how he planned to spend his afternoon, Vahn rather abruptly found himself sitting in a lotus pose in front of thirty-five people, mostly children. The school had lunch, recess, and outdoor activities from noon to 3 PM, so after Rihoko noticed him and scurried over to ask what he was doing, it wasn't long before the entire group of children migrated over, eager to learn to fly.
"Relax your bodies and focus on my voice..." muttered Vahn, his voice faint but reverberating clearly through his domain as he explained, "All living organisms possess energy in their bodies. There are many types, but what we'll be focusing on today is the essence of physical energies such as Ki, Chi, Touki, and Aura, simplified as Life Essence..."
"Now, slowly open your eyes, but keep your gazes lowered and your bodies relaxed. If you look around or get distracted by what others are doing, this next part will be more difficult," stated Vahn, opening his own eyes to see how many children were properly heeding his instructions. To Misla's credit, most of her students kept their gazes lowered. Some, such as Lupheria, Lastia, and Rihoko, even had unfocused looks reminiscent of deep introspection or hypnosis.
"To make things easier for you, I will saturate the air with colored energy particles," stated Vahn. "After that, I want you to position your hands as if you're holding a ball and focus on the space at the exact center. You don't need to think or do anything else. Just focus on that point. And, no matter what happens, do not move, make a sound, or look away. All that exists at this moment is the space at the center of your hands and the sound of my voice..."
As Vahn spoke, his voice becoming increasingly reverberating, tiny pink flecks began appearing between the hands of nearly everyone present. Those who could already manipulate Mana, Chakra, or Touki succeeded almost instantly, but even Masane, with her infamously low Intelligence parameter, managed to create a tiny glowing sphere around the size of a marble. She immediately tried showing off to Rihoko, but thanks to Vahn's domain muffling all sounds but his voice, the voluptuous brunette's happy outburst was barely audible to herself.
"Please calm yourself, Masane-san..." said Vahn, his voice calm, soothing, and perceptible to only Masane. The buxom beauty had started to panic a bit after she glanced around and saw that no one was paying attention to her as she spoke, but after initially startling at the sound of Vahn abruptly speaking to her, she flushed with embarrassment and rubbed the back of her head while laughing and apologizing soundlessly.
"It's fine," assured Vahn, offering a curt nod before adding, "Now, please resume where you left off. If you can't, you're free to look around, but do not get up or become a distraction to others."
'Alright,' responded Masane, her words muted but reverberating through Vahn's domain to be perceptible to him alone. Then, instead of resuming the exercise, she focused on Rihoko, who, even compared to children who originated from fantasy settings, was performing very well. She even had to spread her hands a bit as the sphere of light between her hands slowly grew from the size of a baseball to a dodgeball.
"Alright, that's enough for now," stated Vahn, startling nearly the entire group as he snapped his fingers and dispersed the energy spheres they had created.
With everyone's gazes shifting to him, Vahn smiled, nodded approvingly, and stated, "The exercise I just had you perform is a form of visualization. The end goal isn't to make the sphere as large or as bright as possible but to compact it into a solid. Once I remove this pink mist and have you try it again, many of you will notice that the color of your energy is different or even completely invisible. There's a reason for this, but I will save that for a future lesson. Please begin."
Following Vahn's words and inspired by their previous success, most of the group was able to produce motes of light, primarily in colors such as red, yellow, green, or blue. Some of the few exceptions were Kakashi and Fran, the former producing a silvery-white mote that sent silvery electrical arcs between his fingers and palms. Contrastingly, the latter's was a dark purple so deep it resembled black with a deep amethyst core.
'Looks like most of the children possess basic fire, earth, wind, and water affinities...' noted Vahn, referring to the red, yellow, green, and blue motes in turn. Twelve of the children emitted no light at all, but it wasn't because they couldn't manipulate their life essence—they simply had no elemental affinity. This was common for those who originated from settings without magic systems, but while it was undeniably a disadvantage to start, it also meant they could pick and choose an element to master without having to worry about catalytic or adverse elemental feedback...
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As externalizing life essence was extremely draining, particularly when first starting training, more than half the children ended up needing to eat something sweet and take a nap after ten minutes of Vahn's lessons. The rest, somewhat humorously including Ghislaine, gathered around Misla for storytime, freeing Vahn to migrate to the plateau overlooking the waterfall basin with Bonney's, Riko's, and Kakashi's groups in tow.
"Alright, now that you've all experienced externalizing your life essence, the next step is to direct it to your feet with the image of channeling fuel to a gas burner," explained Vahn, standing straight with his hands at his sides, causing the grass around him to billow away from him in waves as he appended, "Once you achieve that, you picture yourself as the flame. This is a technique called Bukujutsu, or Sky Dancing Art. And if you do it properly, you can expect something like this."
Punctuating his explanation, Vahn's body became enveloped in a bright, golden, flame-like aura that originated from his feet, flickered around him, and came to a point above him. Then, as intense winds surged away from his body, he rose from the ground with a bit of effort. The flight technique he most commonly utilized was different, but since many of those present specialized in brawling or Taijutsu, he reasoned they would have the most success attempting the method used by cultivators or martial artists from worlds like Dragon Ball...
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