Creeping Progress [solo, nk]

His physical power wasn't quite high enough to handle what he wanted to handle, he knew that now. Still, either way, he was going to work as hard as he could towards his goal. Now that his internal energy had condensed to a certain level, he could totally do something a little extra. So, it was time to go into training. Not the intensive closed door kind that he had used for the purposes of learning the Mystic Soul Star technique, but more of the less intensive kind. Something a little more physical and a little less meditative. In other words, he thought to himself as he walked out of the doorway and into the night mist, strength training.

It'd been a while since he'd done anything this serious. There were few waterfalls in Suna that had quiet, non-settled (by humans) pools under them, but he knew just the place. With any luck, he would be able to get quite a bit out of today's session. He made his way to the waterside, taking in the now familiar salty reek of the ocean. The waves lapped softly against the beach, making him think of a song about a.... plastic beach. Somewhere in the village, someone groaned.

Stepping out onto the waves, he began to walk with confident chakra-enhanced steps across the water. The night mist swirled around him, causing a couple of late night lovers in a boat gasp at what they perceived to be some kind of ghost. Ha! Kozurou the boner killer strikes again. After a few minutes, he landed on one of the more obscure islands. People rarely came here, if at all. It was only a matter of time before people came to make this place noisy just like the rest of the village, but for now, he had this place all to himself.

Finding the waterfall and removing his shirt, he maeuvered himself underneath the torrent of water and began to focus. This time wasn't just about raising his chakra, it was about using this training to enhance his strength and his physical energy control. In essence, precision. Any monkey with sufficient muscle could knock down a wall, but only a true martial artist could create attacks powerful AND precise enough to kill a man without leaving a mark on his body. To be able to block a punch, for example, by destroying the arm carrying it was also a goal for him.

Attack hard enough, and there would be no time for a counterattack. The more power behind a blow the more chance it would stagger or right out kill the enemy, which would lead to his inevitable victory. His own, that is. Kozai's conviction and power bubbled within him, and he clenched his fists as a powerful aura expanded from his body, exploding outward. This temporarily blasted the water stream off of him, though it resumed once more under gravity's influence. Good. That mysterious chakra was still within him, and though he had just expended it, he could still gain more back under the influence of Mystic Soul Star.

However, he needed to merely infuse his muscles with more power, first. He focused underneath the torrent of liquid that was cascading over his back. Now that he had released the power, he took note of his meridians afterward. They seemed to shine with a metaphorical glow in the aftermath of the explosion. Ah, what a beautiful appearance. Truly, his meridians had become something amazing from what they were before: misshapen, narrow passages that couldn't really be used for much of anything at all.

Now, they called him a genius, and gave him the credit that both his hard work and newfound talent deserved. The strength of his pride and confidence filled him once more as he extended a fist. To anyone who might have seen it (there wasn't), the fist would appear as a mere blur in their eyes. However, to Kozurou, it would be as if it was in slow motion. There would appear to him to be a rippling motion around his fist. Not of air, and not of space, but instead of his own power manifesting as some kind of... aura, perhaps.

Maybe that's what he was after, then. Some kind of aura, or some style or stance that would naturally generate one. However, think as he might, he couldn't get down to the truth of the matter. Or rather, the root of the mystery. He returned the fist to its resting position near his waist, and concentrated again. No kicks, no throws... just the fist. To master one technique at a time was the best way to go. So, he decided to go with the fist. This time, he brought his other hand up, and tried something a little different. This time, when he threw the punch, there was a slight popping sound. Uhh... oops?

He then realized that there was no pain. The popping sound hadn't been from his body, it had been from the air. Good. So he was able to generate some kind of extra pressure with his physical power alone. That was way more than what most martial artists could say at his age. He truly was a genius, or at least he had pretty good talent. If he could shrink down the size of that pressure bubble just a little bit more, he would be able to deliver an extremely powerful blow to an enemy.

Some combat gloves might help too, he thought to himself. Finger and fist techniques were all well and good, but he needed some better equipment. He'd gone into the Blood Games with next to nothing in terms of weapons and the like, and he'd suffered just a bit for it. The only thing he still owned was that kunai he'd nicked off of the old Mizukage. Still, things were going better than expected. With a little bit of practice, he'd be able to harness that mysterious aura that had appeared earlier.

[WC 1002, that's
5 stats
1002 WC towards Stellar Transformations
Closed]

Approved

That aura... what was it? Kozurou refused to let this mystery defeat him. After all, he needed to be the best. He went to sleep that night troubled by exactly what had happened. There was something up with it, as it was certainly being generated from within him. As it stood now, though, he didn't know much about it. He began to nod off, when he remembered something that jolted him awake. Right, the characteristics of the aura... it was like his chakra, except something different. He sat up cross legged on his bed and began to meditate, focusing on the energy within his dantian.

Just like that, he came to realize a small piece of the truth. The power within him had condensed into a strange state, indeed. It could be described as "planetary", or perhaps.... "stellar"? Yes, that sounded about right. Well, almost. He felt like he was missing out on something important, but he didn't quite know what. Still, this would be enough for now. A star emitted light, but not just light. He knew that stars also released a sort of radtiation, and the magnitude of this radiation was dependent on the type of star in question.

So, did the properties of this aura change based on the properties of his chakra? He began to mix and knead chakra within himself, and the aura manifested around him once again. It was more visible now that he was looking at it, but it wasn't much to look at. A cloak of sorts, that hugged close to his body, not really being much more than a cosmetic light-up effect. Well then, maybe it was time to get out of his damn bed and get to work practicing. Meditation could only go so far, and he was no ascetic.

Getting up and standing on the floor of his bedroom, Kozurou would drop into a practice combat stance and just like before, focus all of his energy into a single acupoint before thrusting his fist forward. There was once again a sound like a large "pop", before Kozai noticed that the aura had flared up slightly. Within his dantian, for a second, he felt the Stellar Chakra change again. It seemed to become... less focused. He "zoomed" in on the cluster of power in the center of his chakra network, and noticed like a sort of small bunch of grains, or tiny chakra particles.

That's right, he thought to himself. Chakra was a pure form of energy, after all. That meant that it was emitted in discrete packets of energy called "quanta". So, if he was able to look at these specific quanta, he might be able to figure out what was going on with this aura. And indeed, the chakra grains were different than usual today. They were more condensed, and had rather odd energy trails. What was this primodials power? Some were even soaring in elliptical patterns around the hara, the center of his energy. What could this possibly mean?

There was only one word to describe these grains of chakra. "Meteors..." he murmured, taking a note from some crazy vampire novel named after the early night written by some lady who would fade into obscurity somewhat quickly. That aside, however, he now had a good sense of what was going on, or at least so he thought. There was something strange, something mutable about these particular grains. He took up a combat stance again, and fired off another punch. Yes, something of this level of power would easily be able to tear through a person. Not satisfied, he threw a few more. Hmm... keeping his kind of stance up sapped a little more stamina than normal, but the increase in combat power was well worth it. He tried powering up a bit, attempting to make his rather diminutive chakra grow stronger under the influence of this form.

His chakra, despite having larger meridians to move around, had not exactly grown in magnitude. This was unfortunate, as Kozurou had expected it to become massively powerful, which meant he had been missing something. It didn't take him long to figure out that he was missing a cultivation base, so he needed to devise some kind of trial or tribulation to undergo and formulate a base for him. Every time he rotated his base in meditation, it would provide him with power in proportion to his talent. That was what he needed, but he needed to create a base style first. Why not start with these grains? He sat down on his floor, and meditated again.

He attempted to form a base from the meteoric stellar chakra, but failed to do so. It was almost like... it was a fragment of a cultivation base. Could there be more to this than he had first imagined? The thought was far from impossible, but it was difficult for Kozurou to believe that he had stumbled across such power all by himself. Then again, this was what self achievement was all about, right? A feeling of excitement filled him. He was once again on the verge of something big. Heaven surely has blessed me, he thought to himself as he stood up again. This time, he took up a different combat stance, one that was coiled to strike. After waiting a few seconds, he picked a move and threw out a straight jab as fast as he could. The moment he did, the meteoric grains of chakra within him began to twist and combine, sinking into something inexplicable.

What was that...? It looked like the origin of a galaxy or some shit. Well then... he'd call this his "chakra origin", then, and the particular high speed attacks associated with it the "origin style". He would then attribute the other one, the meteoric grains, to the powerful blows of a "meteor style". Meditating again, he would try to form a cultivation base from these two... but felt like he was missing one more thing.

[TWC 1000
that's 5 stats
1000 words towards Stellar Transformations]

Approved

There was a point at which someone like Kozurou couldn't stop improving, and that time was now. The rate of his progress was something that couldn't possibly be seen before. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true, but you get the point. Kozurou was slowly becoming a master of his art, using the medical chakra that now existed within his body for defense. Of course, he still needed to work on finding more about this aura that he had created for himself. These... star like formations of aura were interesting to him. There was no reason why he shouldn't have figured this out already, but for whatever odd reason, he had not. This bothered him a bit, so it was no surprise when he got out of bed grumpy that morning. Oof, not a good thing. He closed his eyes and did a quick meditation, blanking his mind and clearing away the frustration. Zen. The path. All would become revealed in time, given how much work he was putting in. There was no way he could fail. He, as a superior martial artist, would prevail. Success was inevitable. Failure was impossible. After all, he was no idiot. He could do anything he put his mind to.

Perhaps it was this obsession with excellence that drove him to such extents and heights. Either way, he stood on the grainy wooden floor of his room, with the sunlight filtering in through the window frame, splashing the floor and walls with patches of luminescent glow. Perfect. He closed his eyes and let himself sink into himself, the full meditation removing perception of the whole world around him. The hot and the cold, the rich and the poor, the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the hard and the soft all dropped away around him, leaving only the nothingness that would become the Dao, the path. Even the hum of the electric lines around him vanished completely from his mind, as he began to sketch in the darkness. Figuratively, of course. One part of the stellar transformations (what he had decided to name this cultivation base) was the meteor. The flaming star hurtling through space, non stop until it landed. And when it did land... oh, the massive force it carried. The ability shatter defense and tear through durable flesh... that was what this represented. And just like that, he managed to extrapolate a series of thirty six distinct movements.

He organized these in his mind, one after another in a logical sequence, at least to him. Right, so this was the process that allowed him to learn and master the meteoric aura to its fullest. However, he wouldn't be performing these yet. He swept them aside, rendering his meditative slate blank once more, and began to extrapolate again. The power within his chakra network began to oscillate and circulate, keeping him alert and active. No room for hesitation. No room for doubt. Only the road ahead, only the path that he needed to take. Kozurou's focus was truly extraordinary, even among those of his level. There was no way he'd allow any of them to reach his realm of ability... not because he'd beat them down (though he would if he had to), but because he'd keep raising his own power! Without stop, without fail, he'd break through any bottleneck and destroy any limits to his ability. To become the most powerful martial artist was his one and only dream, and to get there, he had a plan. He would fight progressively stronger and stronger opponents until he could fight no more, and each one of those opponents' power would become engraved onto his soul.

If he ever turned away from the power that he could access, he would have already failed himself. Once someone set out on the path, there was no turning back. The movements that he had been creating arranged themselves as he gained a better sense of what he was trying to get at, and a series of 36 movements once against presented themselves before his eyes. Right, these represented the movements of the Origin style. As he meditated on these movements, a vision presented itself before him, an incomprehensible not-sphere, something infinitely small and infinitely large object at the same time... so this was the origin. The beginning of everything. Something that the human mind couldn't wrap around. That was what his attacks in this form were meant to be. So fast and so enhanced that the opponent's brain couldn't possibly see them. He stored these movements away for a while, and thought in silence. There was nothing else. Well, there was something else he could do, but it was unthinkable. Should he already start practicing? There was no option otherwise, so Kozurou prepared, standing up and stretching. His eyes still remained focused.

Just like that, he initiated the first set of movements, the meteoric kata causing the dark, sharp aura to snap around him. He continued through with all thirty six of the movements, and moved without interruption into the next thirty six, the aura changing quickly and settling into the origin power, the golden energy lighting up the room with its magnificence. The drain on his energy dropped by about 66%, but he barely noticed at all. He was silent, as was his body, his feet making almost no noise as he practically danced through the motions.

At last, he reached the end, but his meditative state would not allow him to stop, his body naturally creating new movements which somehow seemed to make sense. The aura around him hesitated slightly and flickered, as if it was tasting something new, then it shifted smoothly into something he had never felt before. So, this was the last power? Now it was time to work backwards. Opening his eyes and looking down at himself, he felt a little satisfied with it. A purplish aura... truly a color and diffusion of majesty. How fitting for someone like him.

[WC 1001
that's 1000 wc towards Stellar Transformations
5 stats]

Approved!

Now that he was capable of comprehending all three types of auras, it was time to master and meditate on the last one, then fuse them into one single cultivation base, the singular and unique stellar transformations method. He would spend no more time thinking about the previous two until he had created the method by which he would fuse the three together. But first, to think upon the third aura. He stood up from where he was sitting on a training park bench, and moved onto a grassy area. Closing his eyes, he blanked his mind and shut out all sound and sight, all sensation, and leaving only perception. Then his body began to move. It moved with that kind of disciplined structured elegance that only a dancer or a martial artist could achieve. It moved in a series of thirty six movements that made up the practice structure for this particular aura art, and the purple regal cloak of energy blossomed around him once again. Not bad, though he had no clue what it did. Still, he'd been through this process with the other two, so this one shouldn't be all that difficult. He was more or less an expert, now.

It was then that a vision opened before him, just like it had with the other two. It was something more round and bright than the origin that he had previously seen... this was the firmament. The heavens that stretched over and enveloped everything, acting as protection. All at once, in this profound moment of truth, he realized what the function of the aura was. Defense, of course. Attacks approaching him, when under the effect of this insidious aura, would act as if they were weaker on his body... this was something that he had needed for a while now. Some method of defense by which he could handle attacks easier. Well, this was fine. It left a somewhat larger strain on his energy, but he could deal with that at least. He had been getting more and more ability lately to maintain things longer... though it still wasn't quite enough. In combat, he needed to be able to maintain the Mystic Soul Star technique for the entire combat. At the moment, that was quite beyond his reach, but soon, everything would change. This training with the auras was just the beginning of a long and serious journey to the heights of power.

Now, to make the three function as one. He hopped out the window, and stepped onto the cool night time rooftop. And just like that, he began to dance. Well, less of a dance and more of the first movements of the meteor form. The powerful, piercing strikes that left no room for mercy or hesitation. Fluid movements, from one to the next. Within his core, almost solid stellar chakra began to congeal together, forming into a pillar of sorts. He kept moving into the origin, the chakra within him creating a vortex to swallow the pillar before surrounding it with a golden covering of its own. This golden luster was evidence enough of his glory, and the sheer astounding ability that this aura granted. Still, it wouldn't be as useful as the other two unless he worked on his own body first. He wasn't quite fast enough yet to make full use of its amazing power. Once he managed to increase his speed and reaction time, he would be able to move with such luster that the human mind wouldn't be able to follow his movements. A most admirable goal, indeed, all things considered as far as power went.

With that, the gold leafed pillar descended onto the disk of the firmament. Naturally, it was the firmament, after all. Unlike the starry dark one above him, this one was an undefinable blue, holding up the heavens as the pillar came down on it. It was the sky, so it did not crack, but there was a resounding noise as it folded, taking the pillar into itself. This enhanced disk became what he had been chasing after this whole time. A cultivation base, an endless wheel of meditative prayer that generated power for him. A practice method, in other words. This was his end goal, and he had finally gotten there after a whole day of practice. It took some years, while others only minutes. For him, it had taken about a day or so, which made him both happy and ambitious at the same time. Could he go any faster at all? Or was this his limit? His body was itching to find out. He wondered if he had born with another body, how that would have affected him. Would he have made greater or slower progress? There was really no way of knowing.

He cycled one more time through each of the auras, feeling the style of his fighting change after each one. He'd have to get used to using this in combat, but for now, this was good enough. Sooner or later, he would find someone capable of matching him, and he'd show them the power of the stellar transformations. The disk within him began to rotate rapidly, in the process of enlightenment by repetition, the endless cycle of death and rebirth, what the ancients called "rinne" or "samsara". He knew that he was no closer to discovering any of these things, but the truths would reveal themselves to him eventually, if he searched hard enough. They always did, with enough hard work and sacrifice. With a smirk, he deactivated the aura and went back inside, the cool feeling of the outdoors clinging to his skin. Not a bad feeling, overall, but one he could do well without, he thought, as he snuggled up in bed. He hadn't yet reached an immortal level, despite his efforts, though he could feel something of the sort approaching, what with his recent learning of the use of medical chakra. Still, while he was mortal... he slept.

[WC 1002,
1000 words toward Stellar Transformations
5 stats
CLOSED]

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