SIS B5: Chapter 11: Gravital Training and Heathrow

Daz closed his eyes as he felt himself slamming down into the ground, hard. Once the heavy feeling on his body lessened but didn't quite leave, he slowly got up.

The pressure surrounding him made him feel like he was carrying all of Fort Sky upon his back. Perhaps Crusher could do such a thing, but not him.

"Need you always make me go down face first?" he asked his grandmother who was floated just in front of him with a grin on her expression.

He was sweating profusely and breathing heavily as a side-effect of the denser gravity he was being forced to endure while his youthful grandmother watched him struggling with mass amounts of joy and perhaps even some schadenfreude.

"Treat it as an old woman getting petty revenge on your father and grandfather. I know you don't really care," Ho Ran replied.

'Yup, definitely some schadenfreude.' Daz cracked his neck as he frowned. "Only so long as I keep making progress. Still, for level four of Gravital Body to let you extend the effects to others and then directly control the effects to increase or decrease the gravity for them... It's insane. Why can't I counter it?"

"Now you ask? After being forced to eat dirt hundreds of times before this?" his grandmother asked in a curious tone.

"You're the one who told me to figure it out on my own. I've tried for weeks and we're getting nowhere. All that's come of this is my internal energy has increased and I use a bit less now when applying Gravital Body to myself. That's it. I'm as weak to your control as I was when we started training," Daz pointed out.

The president-turned-queen-turned-high-queen of United Korea snorted. "Why the theatrics? You already know the answer. Future Vision should have told you everything you need to know."

The reaper sighed faintly. "I'm not my father nor my grandfather. I'm not addicted to using the level four power of Survivor's Instinct. Besides, even had I used the power, I'd just have seen you say what you just said, not the answer."

He took in a deep breath as he channelled his internal energy into his second-most efficient bloodline for Gravital Body's usage - his Silver bloodline.

Slowly lifting himself off from the ground with great strain as he tried to combat his grandmother's control, he said, "I do have a pretty good idea though. Either the whole point was to teach me that I'm too weak to resist, or the gains I have earned from this training were so infinitesimally small that any resistance earned would be nigh unnoticeable."

Ho Ran smiled with a slight hint of maternal pride lingering upon her lips. "To think I'd see the day a Hamilio forgoes the option of hiding the shame of their ignorance to instead learn. I know, I know, you are a Hamilio no more. Just allow this old woman her moment of victory, yes?"

Daz shrugged. "You can have whatever you want if you teach me how to use this power in battle. As it stands, it's still nothing more than my best tool for increasing internal energy."

"Ah, well, of course it is. You asked me why I had so much internal energy not that long ago, remember? When you were stressing over the Truthians," Ho Ran said with a hint of sorrow in her tone.

The loss of Incheon to those religious fanatics had hurt her and all of Korea on a very deep and spiritual level. Undoubtedly more so than it had hurt Daz.

"That's right. You brushed me off before proceeding to brush my face against the floor as well, if I recall correctly," Daz commented emotionlessly.

"That you do, haha. Our powers and energy were useless against those cultists so I saw no need to do anything more than simply train you. Now that you've dealt with that threat... not in an ideal manner but dealt with nonetheless, I think it's wise to answer some of your questions on how all of this works, esper powers, bloodlines and the like," Ho Ran stated.

''Not in an ideal manner' is an interesting way to phrase the death of over 5,000,000 people,' Daz thought as he nodded. "That's understandable. So, why is it that you have so much internal energy?"

"To put it simply, those with the Ho bloodline and the Gravital Body power were forced to keep our power active at all hours of the day," his grandmother said with hate and an undying fury in her voice.

Daz frowned. "I can see quite a few issues with that. It's an incredibly expensive ability to keep active. I can't even keep it up for a minute, let alone a day. And if you're expected to do that all day every day... Well, it's impossible. There're no two ways about it."

Ho Ran nodded grimly. "Indeed. Even with my current vast resources I can only maintain Gravital Body's active state for four days without dropping it, and that's only assuming I need not battle or move during that time."

"I can guess what happened. If you didn't have the ability up, you were tortured in some way, right?" Daz asked.

That would line up with how his father had treated him. Granted, Davido Hamilio was attempting to spark Daz's esper powers and bloodlines into action by awakening his emotion of hatred, not strengthening said powers and bloodlines.

Still, the parallels were there and they did not go unseen by the young reaper emperor.

Ho Ran closed her eyes as memories from decades-long passed flashed through her eyes. "For the boys, their veins were cut open in a way that didn't leak too much blood but that resulted in extreme pain. For the girls, we were sexually assaulted regardless of our age or the risks of harm, both mentally and physically, whenever we didn't have the power active outside of designated sleeping and eating times."

Daz narrowed his eyes. "It's a good thing you're the last of the Ho line then."

"Several hundred years too late, sadly," she replied. "I remember my father's words the first time it happened, to my uncle, no less. 'Savour this experience, daughter. Take in all of the pain, the misery, the terror, everything you are feeling right now. All of it. If you don't wish to feel this way again, improve. It is as simple as that.' I tried, but it wasn't possible to meet the family expectations. Every waking moment of every day... I would have taken my own life if it wasn't threatened that my siblings would be killed too if I did. An empty threat, no doubt, though a child wouldn't know that."

She laughed a bit. "I wonder what he felt when I showed up at level five in the power his blood had afforded me. The day I thought I had killed Lorenzo and then returned to Korea only to end up covered in the blood of my brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins... of my mother and father. That was perhaps the happiest day of my life."

"A depressing thought," Daz commented.

"It is, isn't it? All esper family were and are like that. The McArthurs who you shall meet soon are no different. My harsh 'training' if you could call it that, forced my internal energy reserves to grow as much as they did. I can't train you that way, so the question is meaningless really. Just keep doing what you're doing. Use the power when you can," she said in a softer, kinder tone.

"Why did you slaughter your siblings when you tried to protect them as a child?" Daz asked.

"I don't know if choosing to not end my own life counts as protecting them but... they were becoming him. I could see his cruelty in them when I returned, it having been burned into them over years of abuse. Only I was able to hold onto the flames of revenge and justice, it seemed," Ho Ran explained in a pained voice.

"I see," Daz replied plainly, locked deep in thought.

"Now, enough talk, let us spar again," Ho Ran declared as she took a stance mid-air. "The fact that you're floating means I subconsciously weakened the gravity around you. Let's fix that, shall we?"

Daz nodded. "Yes, let's."

***

[Daz Crowthorne's Internal Energy Amount

0.08/16.59 [+1.05]]

It was a lot of growth for a single day of training. Gravital Body was still only a level one esper ability for Daz but despite that, it helped him expand his internal energy far more than Survivor's Instinct ever could.

'Yet the Hamilio's were the most powerful family simple due to how Survivor's Instinct works, particularly the level four ability, Future Vision,' Daz sighed mentally.

'When I have some free time I'll have to see how good Soul Collector is. I can only really test that on monsters though. A matter for another day,' he thought.

Currently, he was flying across the North Atlantic Ocean while Madison slept next to him, ever weak to the comforts the Ridomochi Final Model offered.

'System, show me the efficiency of my bloodlines when using Gravital Body, please,' the reaper requested.

Confirmed. Displaying requested information.

It had cost Daz a negligible amount of merit points to upgrade the system to allow this. Similar to how he could see internal energy numerically via the system, now he could do the same in regards to his esper powers.

It certainly saved the time of testing manually to see where his limits were, after all.

[Daz Crowthorne's Bloodlines (in relation to Gravital Body)

Hamilio: Can sustain the esper ability [Gravital Body] for 37.0 seconds [up from 36.0 seconds].
Crowthorne: Can sustain the esper ability [Gravital Body] for 6.1 seconds [up from 5.7 seconds].
[Unnamed]: Can sustain the esper ability [Gravital Body] for 20.6 seconds [up from 19.0 seconds].
No bloodline: Can sustain the esper ability [Gravital Body] for 17.4 seconds [up from 16.9 seconds].]

'Interesting. My silver bloodline gained more seconds than the Hamilio one did. Was that because I exclusively used that when training with Grandmother?' Daz wondered.

Were that the case, it would mean that internal energy wasn't the only contributing factor when considering the possible duration of an esper ability.

Perhaps using an ability with the same bloodline repeatedly would result in said bloodline gaining a familiarity with the ability in question, allowing it to be used more efficiently.

'Not like I can ask Rose, Maddy, Emma, Grandmother or Grandfather about this. I'm the only one with more than a single bloodline in the entire world. Perhaps there is some insight to be gained though if they ever use their powers without applying their bloodlines, pointless as that is,' Daz pondered.

He considered the topic for a while longer as he and his fiancée peacefully flew across the ocean. All the while, Mr Barrier gently jiggled atop Madison's head.

***

"We've been expecting you, Your Imperial Majesty, Emperor Crowthorne," a short, beautiful woman with blonde hair wearing a tight-fitting business suit greeted him as she bowed her head respectfully.

Daz had, upon receiving radio instructions, landed at what was one the most populated airport in the world - Heathrow Airport.

'She's an esper,' Daz noticed thanks to his title, Esper of Earth. 'Considering her hair colour... Is she a McArthur?'

Before he could ask, the woman turned to Madison and smiled brightly. "Welcome home, Young Miss."

"Do you know each other?" Daz asked, sensing the familiarly the woman's emotions radiated towards Madison.

[Ember of Empathy [Entry-level (initial mastery)] has increased to 24%.]

Madison shook her head, rocking Mr Barrier a bit. "Nope."

"Ah, well," the well-dressed woman blushed a little, "That's unsurprising since the Young Miss moved away at a very young age. I was her wet nurse for a short time."

"I see," Daz said plainly. "You must have been a teenager then. Or perhaps you used the system to get younger? I don't really care. Will her mother be meeting us?"

Madison stiffened a bit at the mention of the woman who had tortured her while the person who had greeted them both froze a bit at being so rudely dismissed.

"Um... yes. Her Majesty High Queen McArthur will, of course, see you... both. That is, after you've had a day to settle down and perhaps do a television interview or two. There are a lot of questions concerning the cracks as well as the founding of your new empire, Your Imperial Majesty," the woman claimed. "I have been assigned to you as your personal assistant for the duration of your stay. Of course, you are free to use or dismiss me as you wish."

'Fucking hell... What is with national leaders and being coy? First grandmother, now Maddy's mother. A slimy bastard he may be and a former yakuza boss too, but at least Emperor Nishikawa greeted me as soon as I visited with Rose so long ago. Those were the days. Maybe I should just go wild. After all, I doubt I'll be leaving this country before Maddy's mother is nothing more than a corpse,' Daz sighed mentally.

As tempting as it was to make a scene right now, he wasn't here to do that. At least, not unless provoked. So, instead of that, he simply nodded. "Fine. Take us to the interview site then. I'll do one then we'll rest in whatever room you've assigned us to."

"Ah, perfect," the esper before him beamed. "If you'll follow me then. Transportation has already been arranged."