One moment, Leon saw himself divided in two; the next, he was back on his feet, taking a few steps back.
He glared at Sukuna, saying, "What the hell was that for?"
"Brat! As I said before, those eyes that you've got now are more special than what this idiot here gives them credit for!" Sukuna pointed back at Satoru, who grumbled from behind.
"Hey! I'mma tell you, I was the best Six Eyes user throughout our history."
"I bet," Sukuna chuckled.
Leon complained, "Again, what does that have to do with me getting cut in half?"
"See it."
"What?"
"I said see it," Sukuna spoke and swiped his hand again. A second later, extreme pain erupted from his legs. Leon fell forward; his legs had been severed from his knees.
His vision shifted back, and he was in one piece again. Sukuna then said, "Unlike others, my techniques are a bit special.
If you want to use even the basic form of Dismantle and Cleave, you have to visualize them. So, unless you're able to visualize my attacks, you won't be able to use them."
Leon frowned, more so because of Sukuna's confusing words. He was sure about one thing, though; this guy was an absolute psycho. Just because he could heal back in this place didn't mean he had to cut him up every time.
He was sweating hard when Satoru spoke from behind, "Don't. Don't weigh yourself down with weak thoughts.
This all sounds and is kind of crazy, to be honest, but if what we've been told about your world is true, then brace yourself, kiddo.
The two of us are going to abuse the shit out of this training mindscape. Tell me, do you want to become strong or remain the same- weak?"
Leon looked at the two, lost in his own thoughts. Just imagining himself going through all that pain was almost nauseating.
"I-" Before he could finish, though, Sukuna spoke again, "You got lost in your thoughts again." A shrill sound of slicing echoed through the space, Leon's body dividing into hundreds of pieces as he disappeared into a mist of blood.
After literally dying hundreds of times, Leon was finally able to dodge a fatal slice, all instinctual, by the way. He still couldn't visualize how Sukuna could throw those attacks.
He was now constantly enhancing his body, slightly resisting some attacks that hit him. He jumped around the white floor, using his physical strength to vault around as he focused on Sukuna's hands or eyes, just to predict where the next attack would come from.
'I think for now, I can avoid attacks if I focus on him,' Leon thought, a smirk tugging at his bloodied face as he was in the air upside down, having just jumped to avoid another attack.
He looked at Sukuna, who now stood with all his arms folded. He was just staring at him, confusing him; then his vision blurred. He was turned into thousands of small cubes again.
Now he was on the floor, exhausted from all the pain. "H- How?"
Sukuna chuckled, "You thought I needed to move my hands to execute my attacks."
To their surprise, Leon burst out laughing. "Hahahaha, hahaha… So, when you said to visualize your attacks, you meant it literally?" he asked at last.
"And?" Sukuna raised his eyebrows.
"I think I know now. Your attacks are purely based on your mental commands. That means you literally visualize cutting something.
And I can only think of two reasons you use hand movements: either to look cool or they make the attacks more effective and easy to visualize."
Sukuna slightly widened his eyes, and Satoru's smirk deepened. Leon got up with a grin on his face, taking a stance.
"Let's do this again." He raised his hands, calling Sukuna forward with his fingers.
Seeing Sukuna's grin, Leon's senses tingled. He took a deep breath and focused with his eyes; he followed the Cursed Energy flowing through Sukuna.
For the first time, he dodged without instincts but just his eyes. He could actually see the Cursed Energy, that activated Sukuna's technique.
Sukuna slightly raised his fingers, increasing the number of slices. Leon widened his eyes and blitzed past all the attacks he could dodge.
Some still landed square on his body, which he just ignored by gritting his teeth. He jumped around again, trying to imitate how Satoru would flail around, doing ridiculous acrobatics.
He wanted to do it as fluidly as possible, but he was still learning to manipulate CE properly, slowly enhancing his body to higher levels.
However, Leon had long since noticed the difference already. The Cursed Energy followed every command of his. Were Six Eyes really a cheat for manipulating it?
Sukuna noticed how he was lost in his thoughts again, then pointed his hand at him, swiping his finger.
'This psychotic-' His thoughts came to a halt, seeing the gigantic net of Dismantle that was flying towards him.
Leon braced for the pain that was about to follow, but his mind was rejecting the idea of letting that attack hit, not wanting to go through the pain again.
"Heh!" Satoru chuckled, Sukuna being slightly surprised.
The barrage of Dismantle went through Leon, but he was completely unhurt; the slashes had been stopped in front of him, and the kinetic energy that rippled out destroyed the floor behind him.
"Huh?" Leon was confused at first, but then he sensed the static glitch that was surrounding his body. 'Infinity-' He thought and heard a few claps that echoed through the place.
"Congratulations, kid. How does it feel to be untouchable?" It was Satoru, who cheered from behind.
Satoru's previous explanations made sense, now that he could finally feel the barrier on himself. His eyes and his cursed technique were working in tandem, constantly creating space that was infinitely dividing itself.
Leon was completely amazed at how the barrier functioned, analyzing everything with his eyes, trying to understand every aspect of it, when he saw a shadow looming over him.
Sukuna's fist came swinging at him from the side. It was slow, but he still wouldn't want to be hit by that. 'Infinity should stop it, right?' He thought.
Sukuna's fist was stopped at first, but it shook the entire barrier; then the barrier gave in, sparks flying off as the it was overwhelmed.
He got smacked square in the face and was thrown a bit far, just from the momentum. "Remember, Gojo told you about the few ways Infinity could be bypassed?
This is one of them," Sukuna spoke with a smirk.
Leon said, grumbling in pain, "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. The Domain Amplification. Thanks for bringing me down before I could fly too high, I guess."
"But it's not foolproof. The harder you maintain Infinity, the harder it is for Domain Amplification to break through," Satoru spoke from behind.
"Put more Cursed Energy to it, huh?" Leon mumbled. 'As simple as that,' He thought, when he felt slightly dizzy.
'Did he cut me up again?' He thought, when Sukuna smirked. "You're waking up." The last thing he saw was Satoru waving a two-finger salute with a grin, when his vision went black, and he opened his eyes in his room.
He flipped the blanket off; his body was sweating as if he'd just run a marathon. And every joint and muscle in his body was sore, making each movement painful.
"Ugh…" A long-winded grunt escaped his mouth as he tried to get up. 'I'm dead… My back.'
It took a few minutes of walking around and stretching for his sore muscles to loosen up. 'Is this what Satoru meant when he said I'd be affected in the physical world too?
I think I need to up my exercises,' He thought and went for the shower. The one thing that kept his mind sane. He couldn't get enough of the therapeutic sensation when getting hit by the shower water.
There was no one else in the house right now. Kate had already gone to her job, leaving a lovely sticky note on the fridge.
The food was all prepared; he just needed to heat it up, and there was a P.S. note that said she'd take him clothes shopping that evening.
He grabbed an apple from the fridge and, holding it in his hand, tossed it up, but when it fell down, it stopped a few inches above his hand.
Satoru had instructed him that the best way to train using Infinity was to try and keep it as close to his body as possible.
That made it harder for him to maintain and, at the same time, increased his efficiency in using it. Satoru could do it automatically, even going as far as to create a danger rating based on mass, speed, and energy carried by the objects trying to hit him.
Just a few days ago, he would have been all confused hearing all these complex terms, but today, the more he knew, the more he felt like he knew less.
'Knowledge is scary,' The thought crossed his mind before he dismissed it with a shrug. The more he knew, the better, right?
After having some breakfast and then an ample amount of that sugar mix, he went back to his room.
While he didn't get much break in his mindscape and was constantly torn to shreds, dying and coming back, just to die in the most ridiculous ways, here he could calmly think about the two other techniques he wanted to at least activate once.
He'd already visualized and understood Dismantle, just that trying to use it inside the house didn't seem the smartest thing to do.
He didn't want another problem on top of his aunt's head. 'For now, though,' He thought, as he stood on the other side of the room.
Leon raised his hand forward, focusing on the pen that was on the table beside his bed. 'Amplification.
A technique that works on the principle of negative space, giving that space the property of attraction.' Its offensive form was called Blue.
But that was if he even managed to get past making a negative space. 'This all goes against everything I read about space and time yesterday.'
'Negative space is not even supposed to exist,' He grumbled, almost feeling dizzy trying to visualize the thing.
He closed his eyes, getting into a state of trance. 'There's almost three and a half meters of distance between my hand and that pen.'
'What does Amplification do?' He thought, then visualized that space ceasing to exist. His Cursed Energy flowed through the Amplification Technique.
The space between the pen and his hand collapsed, not at an extreme scale; he was using the least amount of CE that he could muster.
Managing the CE was as easy as breathing; the Six Eyes really were a cheat in that regard. They acted like a filter, with close to zero Cursed Energy wasted in the output.
He opened his eyes with a smile and, at the same time, the pen flew towards his hand, stopping just a few centimeters ahead of his palm.
'I did it,' He thought, his face softening a bit. He was not only able to use the Amplification for the first time but also activate Infinity simultaneously.
These abilities were so versatile; dozens of ideas were popping up in his head. Some were simple but effective, and some downright ridiculous to even think about.
That's the reason Satoru had said that his limit lay in his imagination and creativity. 'Study and learn about physics and math as much as you can.
You should be able to solve even the most complex vector calculations in the matter of nanoseconds.' Satoru's voice echoed in his head.
Leon could also feel the difference from yesterday, especially how physically strong and fast he was.
In the empty part of the room, he executed fast and perfect kicks and punches. He wasn't using any CE to enhance himself right now, but still, his movements were picking up some gusts of wind.
His body moved as he willed, recalling the core arts of Satoru's fighting style, at least what he could gather during his beatdown.
The multiple quick punches with a loosened fist, then the head grab, slamming his knee into an imaginary face- well, Sukuna's face.
He hated how unapologetic he was. Satoru at least- No, they both were brutal bastards. He shuddered, remembering the sheer number of times he'd died in his mindscape.
And each death equally, if not more, painful.
His hands and legs flowed like water, executing a perfect movement, and he jumped, performing a 540 that ended with his heels performing a hook.
'Not enough,' He thought. He wanted to test how far he could push himself. He went back to the living room and stood atop the treadmill by the window.
Closing the curtains, he started jogging lightly and gradually increased his speed. He waited for himself to get tired, but no.
It had already been more than 35 minutes now, and he was still going. 'Alright, let's take this up,' He thought, increasing the speed again.
45 mph, 50 mph, 60 mph… He suddenly smelled something familiar. "Sniff, sniff." 'Is that burning plastic?'
'Shit!' He thought, getting distracted. His right foot got caught on top of his left heel, and he was thrown backwards, but before he could hit his face on the floor, Infinity came to life.
'Sigh… safe,' He thought and looked at the poor treadmill. Its max speed was 65 mph, but it was obviously not built to reach that speed with someone running on top of it. (A/N: I know most treadmills don't even go up to 12 mph, but let's just roll with this.)
The rubber track had slightly melted, getting constantly rubbed on the side. 'Yeah, I need to change my training location.'
He knew he could go faster, but this wasn't obviously the best place to do that. He just mended the rubber track that had slightly slipped to the side and scraped off the burnt marks.
'Treadmill's off limits now,' He made a mental note.
And now, he was off to studying again. Sitting in front of Kate's computer, he was continuing where he left off yesterday.
He wanted to finish everything he could find on physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics before he was sent to school again, which he was sure his aunt would arrange after a while.
He could easily cover other subjects like history and language whenever he wanted. 'I wonder how easily I'd be able to learn other languages,' He made another mental note.
The rate at which he was studying and the level, he couldn't wait to give her a surprise. If he became strong enough, it didn't matter if he garnered attention or not.
That was the first thing Satoru had lectured him about: 'Become so strong that you have to worry about nothing.'
Leon continued his insane study session, and soon, evening rolled by. Kate was supposed to take an early day off today.
She came home around four; Leon was still engrossed in his studies. When Kate entered, the curtains were lifted, and her apartment was silent, except for a faint humming sound of her PC in the living room.
Leon was at the computer, writing something down on a piece of paper as he looked at the screen. "Good evening, Kate," he said, not looking back.
"I thought you hadn't noticed," she replied, leaning on the doorframe.
"I could hear your heartbeat," he blurted out, not thinking about it too much.
"Huh?" she mumbled.
"Huh?" He looked up and back at her.
"Ah, I mean, ha, ha, I can hear your heartbeat!" he said awkwardly. 'How can I hear her heartbeat? Are my other senses sharpening too?' He thought.
"Pfffttt, hahaha hahaha…" She broke out in genuine laughter and walked towards him. She then ruffled his hair, messing it up a bit.
"Don't push yourself too hard, okay," she said, planting a kiss on his forehead and walking out of the room.
He had a cute pout on his cheeks. 'Does she know something's up?' He thought, a bit confused why she wasn't asking any questions if she had any doubts.
Kate, who was in her room, sighed. 'That boy… Well, he doesn't seem that troubled by it. And as far as his health is concerned, he's all fine.
I should still be prepared; he might need some help in the future,' She kept that in the back of her head, a few contacts coming to mind.
But she'd only reach out if he was actually troubled by whatever abilities he'd awakened. If not, there was no need to disturb his peaceful days.
'He's already gone through enough,' She thought. "Haah…" She let out a long sigh. It was really sad that he didn't remember her.
Her eyes got a bit wet, remembering all the moments with him, how he'd follow her around, sticking to her more than his parents.
'No, he's fine, and that's all I need.' If he was willing to move forward, then so was she. He was still her Leon.
She suddenly realized something. 'Wait, was he reading about the female reproductive system?' She remembered the content of the screen that she'd seen but ignored in that moment.
(A/N: Bro was writing that down… LOL.)
... To be continued!!!
A/N: Alright, done with the Fifth, we'll be picking up the pace soon. While the training arc is important, I don't want to waste too many chapters on it.... See you next chapter... Bye!