All the Time in the World(WIP) (HBTC)

[Deleted]

-=The Journey Begins=-

Ryota let out a howl of frustration as he stomped around the vast emptiness of the time chamber, he wanted something to hit something to utterly annihilate that not even the Kais themselves could reforge it. And what you might ask was the source of such unbridled rage? What could cause the Captain of the Demon Galleon to lose his cool? He was lost. Normally such a thing would be a trivial matter, he would simply zip on over to the nearest power source, or even just portal his way back to the Galleon. But he couldn't, there WERE no other power sources nearby, the only other person he knew that was even IN this Dimension was Carmine and the bastard was an android effectively blinding Ryota to his position.

It had been his and Carmine's own egos that had caused this in the first place, they had been training hard since arriving in the Time Chamber trying to put there time inside to good use before they would need to depart for the Demon Realm, but then a training session had gotten a bit out of hand and they had unleashed the full force of there power upon one another resulting in an explosion of incredible force. That explosion had sent the both of them flying and unlike the mortal realm of demon realm this world had nothing in it to impede them as they flew through the sky. Ryota had awakened to find himself completely lost within the emptiness of the Time Chamber, so far away from the entrance that he couldn't even see it and most defiantly could not see Carmine.

At first Ryota had just assumed he would spend a few hours trekking about the emptiness and eventually find the entrance, he had imagined Carmine would drag his ass into it shortly afterward, they would joke about the blast likely call each other names and play the blame game for the wasted time, and then proceed to return to there training or perhaps eat. But that didn't happen. Ryota wandered until his legs would not allow him to wander any further and then collapsed where he stood and slept. When he awoke he repeated his process for what felt like days before realizing a horrible fact. He didn't even know if he was going in the right direction. For all eh knew he could be getting himself more and more lost. The realization had been rather sickening to Ryota and he'd immediately attempted to create a portal to the Galleon. But he found himself incapable. Later Ryota would theorize that it was a result of the Time Chambers magics but at the time Ryota simply roared in frustration before trying again and again only stopping when he knew that at least his sword still functioned as it could create his normal portals.

After that Ryota had tried a new method, he'd tried using his portals to speed up his journey but quickly realized that it was still of no use after a few days of portal-enhanced wandering. The end result was that he simply got a but further each 'day'(or at least what he considered a day) while still not knowing if he was actually even heading in the right direction. The fact that the Time Chamber itself was an incredibly harsh place to even BE in let alone to live in just made the whole thing much worse, temperatures skyrocketed just as quickly as they plummeted and the air was thick with enhanced gravity, thankfully the gravity itself was easy enough to acclimate to, all he really needed was a bit of time. The temperature spikes however were a whole other beast just as you got used to the temperature being at one point it would suddenly rocked in the other direction and make travel all the more painful.

It was after a few weeks that Ryota knew he needed to do SOMETHING about the temperature situation, he needed to devise something that would allow him some freedom from the rigors of the Time Chambers foul temperatures, something that would allow him to get a proper 'night' of rest when he eventually found the need for such a thing. He had currently been chugging along for about three days off what he assumed was near four hours of rest, in truth he had no idea exactly how long he slept for and to an extent even how long he traveled for. Sure in the back of his mind he'd been keeping count of the time but he was certain he'd lost track a few times added and lose a few minutes here and there, a few hours every day, and soon he was certain he'd start losing days, he was on day twenty nine at this point as far as he knew, just a day over four weeks of travel in the endless wasteland that was the time chamber. His training had been sub par at best, grueling due to the gravity and the temperature and how much pressure he put on himself, but still ultimately sub par, he had been far more concerned with finding a way to the exit than he was with training.

Eventually(Weeks 8, Days 4) Ryota began to skimp a bit on his travel putting a bit more emphasis once again on his training, he didn't want his time stuck in here to go to waste he wanted this time to be what drove him ahead, what gave him the edge over his father that he needed. If he didn't start putting more work into his training his power would begin degrading, he would end up WEAKER than he had been when he started out and that was most certainly not what he wanted, he had entered the Chamber still unsure of himself and if he could actually topple his father, finding that he was in fact LESS capable once he exited would not be something he could see himself handling, as well he was certain that Carmine would not be getting any weaker and he could not allow his friend and rival to surpass him THAT easily. Ryota knew his friend being an Android likely would mean that Carmine could train and press on without ever needed to rest. If need be perhaps he would simply need to rely on the fact that his friend had the ability to sense HIM to be how he eventually rejoined the android.

-=Surviving Eternity=-

With his training put back on the forefront of Ryota's concerns Ryota began work to develop something that would aid him against the harshness of the Time Chamber, at least something to give him a bit of respite from the temperature fluctuations. He thought long and hard on what techniques he at least knew the basis of and that he was certain with effort and time he could recreate. He thought of the barrier techniques he had seen many implement in battle but dismissed those for the time being, they would require an active use of his energy to maintain which would mean draining himself while he slept and planned, ultimately he knew that one day he would perhaps work on such a technique due to the merit it had in battle but for the moment Ryota wanted something different.

Ryota found himself pulling his thought all the way back to his youth, when he had just started studying under his Captain, when he had been no more than a deckhand on the Galleon. The Galleon at the time had employed a man who while lacking in power was a very accomplished user of magic, through his power he was able to manipulate his Ki to create objects, the effect caused a bit of drain on his power but nothing that wouldn't recuperate with a bit of good rest. The end result however was that the man was able to create anything his mind could conceive so long as it was not TOO complicated and so long as he did not overextend himself. Sadly the man had died doing just that trying to recreate the mast of the Galleon when it had been toppled by an enemy attacker. He had accomplished his task but with all the other repairs he had made the mast had simply been his breaking point. It had been because of him that the crew had been able to turn the tides of the battle and eventually win.

THAT power would certainly solve his problems, emulating it however would be a tricky task, Ryota had never tried to do so particularly hard as he had always been a bit more on the 'hit it with explosions' side of things but it wasn't as if he was hard up for time and he certainly now had the drive to do it. Many on the crew had attempted to recreate the power as well over the years and as such Ryota had a fair enough knowledge on what NOT to do as many had also injured themselves or pushed too far with the power. Knowing that Ryota began the slow and incredibly annoying process of trying to recreate the technique himself.

From what he had learned over the years the basics of the technique had been figured out, you needed to coalesce a fraction of your Ki into the item you wanted to make, bigger and more complicated items needed more and more Ki, more complicated items needed even more focus as you needed to make sure each 'bit' of the item was being made properly otherwise the creation would either not work, end up broken, or backfire on you. Many of the crew had attempted to use it to make there favorite types of rum or other such alcohol without even actually understanding what went into making there drink, the end result there had been quite a number of sick and injured crew members and even a few deaths as one poor idiot had produced a backfired bottle of rum that had miniscule shards of glass in it. Suffice tit o say it had been decided after that that the creation of food and drink was banned.

Now that Ryota though of it the original user of the technique had never actually used it to create food or drink either, perhaps even that had been beyond him? Or perhaps it was simply not something that could be done right? Regardless Ryota didn't much care, he could sustain himself off of his energy alone for long periods but in order to do so he would need to be rested. Already eh could feel his power ebbing as his body called upon it to sustain him and without proper rest he was also not properly refueling his energy.

Thankfully for Ryota necessity is the mother of invention and with his already decent knowledge of the technique he was able to at least begin SOMEWHERE, to begin with Ryota wants to do something simple, simply creating a slab of stone with no fancy identifying markings that would make the slab particularly impressive, perhaps later when he wasn't seeking what might be his only means of survival out here he would get fancy with things but right now he needed function over form, Ryota focused so intently upon his work that he halted any progress within the Time Chamber deciding that pressing on would only further drain him and as well only serve to keep his mind off of his current goal, he would be far too focused trying to spot the Time Chamber's ext or Carmine if he were moving, and so for the first time in weeks, Ryota 'rested'.

The work on creating the slab was long and arduous every attempt he made seemed to fail in some way just as he felt like he was about to get it, sometimes the energy would simply fail to coalesce properly and disperse into the air, other times the slab would form but be so unstable it would fall to dust at a mere touch, despite such failings Ryota KNEW he had a chance, even if the slab was so unstable that it crumbled at a touch he had still progressed enough to actually accomplish bringing it to form, from there he would simply need to stabilize and then he would be in the clear to begin working on different scales, once he actually had it down he knew it would just be a bit of trail and error before he could create proper housing.

After weeks of trial and error with his method Ryota finally managed to form a slab that would not crumble at a touch, before which he had managed to create a slab that would remain stable until moderate pressure was put on it, however such pressure included lifting it under the harsh effects of the chambers gravity. Now however he had finally gotten it, a whole slab that he had not yet found the way of easily destroying, of course it was likely the slab would crumble under an actual attack from him but the fact that it was not stable enough to be moved meant he could finally progress, he could begin working on larger slabs. However what he REALLY needed and what he did was take a few hours simply creating as many of that original slab as he could and then stacked them as carefully as he could fashioning a rather crude hut of sorts out of the stones. It took most of the day but finally Ryota had himself somewhere that he could rest easily, the stones managing to keep him under a fairly stable temperature even if it really was just mostly warm but now that he had a sense of stability he was able to get some actual rest, and rest he did.

Ryota awoke an unknown amount of time later, the rest had certainly not bee the best of his life but the feeling of refreshment he received from it after going so long with little to no sleep and barely restful sleep when he manged to grab any made it feel quite good. When Ryota exited his stone hut he decided to leave it behind and with that got an idea, on the off chance Carmine was seeking him out and scouring the Time Chamber he could use his new technique to lead his friend to him assuming they didn't simply stumble upon one another. Now that he had the technique mostly 'ready' and simply needed more practice with it Ryota began his trek once again, now however every so often he would use his creation power to create an object and toss it over his shoulder leaving a 'trail of bred crumbs' that would lead anyone who found it straight too him.

-=The Journey Continues=-

Now reletively well rested and without worry of simply keeling over from trying to sustain himself off of dwindling power Ryota once again began his trek through the time chamber, after all the time working on his newest technique he was fairly certain his time within the chamber was coming in on more than two months, he was quite astounded with his body's ability to sustain itself, he had at times gone without food for quite a bit because it was needed but this had been far more than he was used to and was quite glad that he had made it this far, nobody deserved that sort of fate, dying alone and hungry in a dimension you don't belong to with likely no chance of anyone finding your body. Ryota often shuddered at the thought and tried his best to put it out of his mind as truthfully he wasn't sure if his method of sustaining himself would actually last, could he really supplement his bodies nutritional needs for much longer with his energy? Sure it had worked for... however long he had been going at this point but for how much longer?

Ryota became quite frustrated with his minds inability of breaking from the subject and decided to give himself a new task, something to focus on like the Creation technique something that would take his mind off the shit that was his life currently. But what exactly would serve as his new project? He had already accomplished quite a bit with the Creation technique, even managing to produce simple pieces of technology that he knew the workings of. Mostly clock-like devices, nothing portable quite yet but he'd accomplished making a few 'alarm clocks' candles that had enough wax that when they eventually burned out would cause a bell to ring awakening Ryota. It allowed him to now know how long he slept for, currently he was working off of a good six hours of sleep a day, just enough to 'recharge' as much as he needed without wasting too much time.

Ryota idly looked down at his sword, perhaps a new technique relating to his blade was in order? Most of his repertoire already revolved around his blade so it would be fairly simply to create something new, sword techniques came to him quite easily. Ryota spent a few days pondering the concept behind something new for his blade as he journeyed and did light basic training. After a week he came to a conclusion, he would close off one of the few weaknesses that his Space Slice technique possessed, it'd need for him to need to see where he would end up. His fights with Carmine had many times proven that blinding was ALWAYS a good option against himself and while now he had the option of using the Eye of the Storm it would not always be the best tactical decision to do so.

Being able to pull back from the fight and fix his vision would be an invaluable skill and definitely be something worthwhile to pursue. And if he could get that down perhaps then once he escaped this place he would be able to pursue advancing the technique further, his ultimate goal would be to be able to open a portal to anywhere so long as he knew the location well enough, currently the only place he could bring himself outside of visual range was the Galleon and that was mostly due to his connection to the ship. Sadly though the connection appeared incapable of crossing dimensional boundary's. He had contemplated using the Wargate to accomplish his task many times over but the nature of the room put Ryota a bit on edge, he had designed the technique in order to pass from the mortal realm to the demon realm and without further consulting the text he had gotten the Wargate from he was unsure if it would function properly between the Time chambers realm and the mortal or even demon realm, what if he opened a gate to some other realm.

Many stories told of other realms, worlds worse even than his home Realm, places filled to bursting with horrid creatures that would drive even a demon mad with a glance. Ryota had no intention of unleashing such monstrosities upon the world if he could prevent it and even still he wanted to find Carmine before even attempting it, perhaps if he had his friend along with him they could find off a potential negative encounter with 'a thing from beyond' but alone? Ryota wasn't entirely sure of his odds. Ryota sighed a bit at the thought, he despised the idea of knowing he was incapable of facing a threat head on, especially when such a threat kept him from achieving his goals, but now was not the time to think on that.

Ryota drew his sword and spun it around in his hand, in order to make sure he was not doing things 'the normal way' he would need to do all of this training without the aid of sight, being able to see would mean that theoretically he was just catching a glimpse of where he wanted to create his portals out fo the corner of his eye and would ultimately make things more difficult. Actually knowing if eh succeeded when blindfolded would be rather simple as he could 'feel' when and where he created a portal. Blinding himself was a fairly simple affair all Ryota needed to do was create a blindfold which after weeks of training his Creation technique required little effort to preform, a blindfold was little more than a long piece of cloth. Of course now that Ryota was rested and energized the blindfold he produced was as extravagant in style as his clothing and would likely serve as a headband once this piece of his training was completed.

Ryota decided the best method to begin work on upgrading his technique was to work on it while blinded as he had when he had first started working with the technique, focusing his energy throught he blade and trying despretly to make it actually DO something, his first ever use of the Slice Space technique so long ago had been entirely by accident done purely out of self defense, he had spent weeks upon weeks trying to recreate the technique and it had only been after months of work that he had ever even gotten his sword to open another portal. Back then the location of the 'exit' portal was almost entirely random if still limited to his visual range.

Now Ryota went through the same process, however unlike in his youth Ryota was far more knowledgeable of his swords and his own power, he could feel his sword trying to channel his energy into the portals that he usually created as he slashed the open air but no matter hoe ahrd he tried he was lacking the connection that having a visual on the location he wanted the portal to appear in had provided, he had thought about perhaps simply visualizing the area as he had seen it before and upon attempting it a few times found the task a bit easier and even managed to form a few portals, however that would not be the same as what he wanted, Ryota wanted the ability to form a portal even without specifically knowing the location, so that if he were blinded he could pull himself to somewhere safe that wasn't the Galleon.

[Deleted]

Carmine lay on the ground in the vast sameness of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He'd been there for quite some time, his systems crashed by the force of the blast that had sent him and Ryota off into the depths of this unforgiving and frankly quite awful dimension. As he whirred back to "consciousness", he noted two things immediately: One, he had no idea where he was. Two, Ryota's energy signature wasn't within range for him to detect it.

Then he noticed that his legs were missing. And his sword was gone.

He thought back to his fight with Ryota. It had gotten intense, more intense than he thought either of them had intended. Carmine had been losing, slowly but surely. Ryota just had too much of an edge over him. Carmine couldn't just take a loss lying down, he'd have never heard the end of it. Instead, he put everything he had into one last Typhoon Kick, which had clashed with whatever attack Ryota had thrown at him. The resulting explosion had caused damage to Carmine's memory, so everything up until his system crash was disjointed and staticy. Somewhere between that explosion and landing where he was, he'd lost his legs and sword.

He'd have been panicking if he were a biological being. He'd have bled out by now, really. He'd be dead. Being an android had its perks. He pushed himself up, looking around to survey the area. He could see bits of debris - slagged shards of his lower body - scattered off in one direction. He rolled himself over onto his belly and, with a deep breath, dragged himself along, hoping to find something he could salvage. Times like this he wished he'd installed some kind of flight unit. Then again, knowing himself, he'd have installed them in his feet.

The environment in this dimension was harsh and unforgiving. His body was resilient, sure, but he was heavily damaged and even he was feeling the effects of the unstable temperatures, dense air, and intense gravity. He'd barely made it half the length of a football field before his cooling systems were reaching critical levels. All he'd managed to find was one of his knee joints, melted along the edges and cracked down the middle. He could work with it, but not on its own, and he wouldn't be running any marathons on it. He stopped, face down on the ground, and waited for the temperature to drop.

Days later, he'd made it a few miles, and he'd discovered both good news and bad news. The good news was that he hadn't lost his legs in the initial explosion - judging by the concentration of broken parts in his relatively immediate area, they'd been destroyed by the landing. The bad news was, he didn't just land, tumble, and go in a straight line. He'd bounced in a few different directions, and his legs had been scattered. He'd been hoping to use the trail of machine parts to find his way back to the entrance to the Chamber, but that just wouldn't be possible. At least, he thought, he'd found his left foot (still in the boot!), a femur, and enough of an ankle joint to work with. Soon he's have enough to put together a basic leg armature. He was glad he had both his arms. Doing these repairs without the proper tools was going to be enough of a headache without having to do it one handed.

It took him nearly a month to find enough to work with to build himself a pair of skeletal legs. He'd become nervous when he couldn't find his right foot, or anything of his right leg below the knee. The explosion may have vaporized it. Luck would have it, however, that his sword wasn't too far off, already conveniently shattered into half a dozen pieces. He could use the hilt for a shin bone, and probably melt the blade into a makeshift foot. He'd be limping, but he'd be mobile.

-Making Do-

Carmine laid the pieces of his legs out in front of him in roughly the configuration they would be assembled in. He'd decided to abandon the idea of fabricating a new right foot. Without the proper equipment he'd just end up with an awkward piece of slag that would probably trip him up more than anything. Instead he decided just to leave the hilt of his sword as a sort of -how appropriate - peg leg. Now came the problem of actually getting it all assembled.

Without the proper tools, putting these legs together and getting them attached could take days, or weeks if there were any complications. With the harshness of the environment and a growing concern for his friend, captain, and rival Carmine needed a better solution. His first idea was to adjust the galleon buster to emit a superheated ultra-thin beam that could act as a welding torch to fuse the metal pieces together, or when charged cut through them. He put the idea aside, however, when he started to consider what he would need to actually DO that. He wished he'd installed some kind of tool kit somewhere on his body. Then again, just like everything else, he'd probably have put it in one of his legs.

He laid back on the ground and let out a frustrated sigh. What would Ryota have done in this situation? Probably have bled out, Carmine mused, or maybe he'd have had Carmine build him new legs, or just carry him. Or something to do with portals. Ryota was always thinking with portals. Okay, so Ryota's wisdom wouldn't help here. What would science do? Science would assess the situation, take inventory of all the resources available, and if a solution didn't present itself, formulate a new solution. Science would get creative. Step one, assess the situation. He was alone, in a vast emptiness with no legs, no sword, and no advanced tools or even basic tools. Step two, take inventory. He had the pieces of his legs, the pieces of his sword, and not much else aside from the rest of his body and everything housed inside of it. No direct solution presented. Step two-b, evaluate resources.

The remains of his legs were just materials. They weren't usable as the tools to repair themselves. He could use some of the shards of his sword as makeshift screwdrivers, but that wouldn't really help. Everything inside his chassis was important in one way or another - cooling systems, wiring, motherboards. And besides, none of his internal mechanics could be jury rigged into tools. Things were not looking up. He lay back down, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, fighting back a bitter panic. He could live indefinitely, but in this environment his systems were sure to break down sooner or later, and with no means of repair this could be his death. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind, and concentrated on centering himself. Calmness and stillness would be his messiahs in this place, and allowing his soul to be poisoned by doubt just wouldn't do.

And it was then that it came to him. Poisoning the soul sounded a lot like what his Scorpion Lunge technique accomplished - a slow degradation of his opponent's ki. He still didn't entirely understand it, but there was ki within him, that same energy source that seemed somehow impossibly and inextricably linked to his power cells and central command system. He'd been studying himself for some time now, and he still didn't understand it. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to use it. He'd heard stories of men using their ki to move objects, and that sort of thing was going to come in handy right about now. Sure, he needed to do more than just move the pieces of his legs around, but he was sure he could find a way to get the mechanics working through his ki.

He closed his eyes and gathered his ki. He visualized it as a ball in his chest, hovering idly around his powercells. He played with it for a bit, moving it this way and that, feeling surges of strength into each area he forced it to. Finally, he pushed it into his sensory array. For a moment, he felt nothing, but then everything became more acute, more -there-. The temperature, the feel of the ground against his body, the ozone smell of the place, all of them were intensified, but this wasn't what he wanted. He needed to use a more abstract sense. He pushed the ki into a smaller subsection of his sensory array, the one that picked up on the ki of others.

His whole world lit up in a hot orange color. Even with his eyes closed, it was as if he could see his surroundings clearly. He could even see himself. He allowed himself a moment to marvel at it, but then turned his attention to the task at hand. He examined each piece of his legs with this new sense, and each gave him a unique tactile response. As he examined his right knee, however, he grew dizzy. This was not a sensation he was used to, and it broke his concentration. When he tried to regain his focus, the dizziness only got worse and worse until eventually blackness took him as his systems crashed again.

He lay there in his own unique brand of unconsciousness for days, entirely unaware of anything before he finally booted back up. He shook his head, fuzzy and frustrated. He never reconsidered his plan, he just jumped back into it. This time, he pushed less of his ki into his sensors. He theorized that he'd flooded his processor with data the first time, and instead went slowly, in increments. Soon, he was examining his legs once again. He noticed damage and imperfections he'd never have seen just with his eyes, and found several solutions to his dismemberment problem. He even managed to figure out the configuration for some of the bits of shrapnel that had once been the exoskeleton around his legs. He had become intimately familiar with each piece of his lower body, as well as the shards of his sword. Interesting, however, that the only thing in the hilt of his sword that he could really examine was the tang. The wooden grip of the sword was a dull, ghostly outline, almost not there at all.

Now came the next step - moving them around. This part was surprisingly simple to figure out. As it so happened, by pushing his ki into his external sensors, he had inadvertantly pushed his ki out into the world, if only in an ambient manner. All he had to do was shape his ki around each piece, like an array of hands all working together. He lifted each piece up, and after a few moments to reexamine them, arranged them in the most ideal configuration under the circumstances. Bolts were bolted, screws were screwed. All he needed now was for welding to be welded. A few of the hands, almost in instinctive response to his needs, glowed intensely in his mind's eye, and grew hot. They fused the metal together where it needed to be, and attached the legs to his body. He even managed to use the shards of his sword's blade and the tang, removed from the wood grip, to make an attachment port for the grip to act as a peg leg. He pulled his ki back and opened his eyes, finding his work done. His legs looked almost like they'd just been badly cracked, save for missing the lower part of his right leg. He leaned forward, grabbed the wooden grip of his hilt, and attached it. After that, he pushed himself up tentatively, only to find himself on an acceptable solid footing, even with the peg. He nodded to himself, and after closing his eyes and consulting his best instincts, picked a direction and started walking.

-The Wanderer-

Carmine had been walking for, by his estimation, several months. He only stopped when he was dangerously close to overheating, and while that wasn't an uncommon occurrance it was far from daily. He doubted Ryota was going to be able to make the same kind of progress, if the demon was even still alive. He hoped Ryota was still alive. Dying in this place, lost and alone and miserable, would be just awful.

As he wandered, he thought. He'd come in here to train, and while he'd just made what he considered to be a major breakthrough in technique by developing his power to manipulate inorganic materials and technology with sheer force of will, it was a drop in an ocean of progress that he had wanted to make. He had planned to be in this place for a year. Odds were that he'd be there for much, much longer. Thankfully, even if it took him 100 years in here to find the exit, it wouldn't have even been a full year on the outside. He was confident that he wasn't missing much. He decided that he should take time to train himself, to expand his knowledge of himself and his repertoire of techniques.

Up until this point, Carmine was more focused on pushing the limits of his physical chassis, constantly breaking himself in order to repair the damage and make himself a little bit stronger in the process. It was a very surface approach, and only recently did he start to delve into ki techniques. He found it strange how readily he had taken to it, but then he'd always been a fast learner. Even with his recent interest in his ki, he was still so focused on everything that was going on around him rather than what was going on within him that he still mostly just pushed his body. Hell, when he'd first set food inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, his first move was to start doing pushups. Pushups! For a machine! A machine capable of ki power!

In retrospect, he'd been foolish and small-minded. Another interesting realization for someone who had immense processing and computing power.

He allowed his mind to drift, to think on all the things he wanted to learn to do. He'd seen some more than interesting techniques in his time, and he'd be lying if he were to say there was no envy there. One thing he envied powerfully was Ryota's sword. An exquisite weapon, eminently sharp and night unbreakable, Ryota's sword was a thing legends were made of. Not only was that blade immensely powerful, it was a part of Ryota. It would always be there for him, whenever he wanted it. Carmine looked down at his 'peg leg', the shattered remains of his own sword. It hadn't been anything legendary, but neither was it just a decorative toy. And yet, there it was, ruined and gone. What Carmine would do to have a weapon that was a part of him, a weapon that would never be so irreparably shattered.

The thought made him pause. Why couldn't he? He was already capable of channeling ki through a weapon, why not channel it INTO a weapon? Use his ki to forge a blade that was a true reflection of his soul, perfectly suited for his fighting style. This was an idea worthy of deeper consideration. He would need to meditate, to really look deep within. He stopped, sat, and closed his eyes.

He visualized his past battles. Battles with Ryota, and battles with the crew. Battles with criminal scum and psychopaths. He considered his techniques and tactics. Each of these elements would help him express to himself what his philosophy on combat truly was. Some fighters focused on brute force, some on defensive superiority. Some focused on having a deep wellspring of energy, on having endless stamina. Stamina was definitely one of Carmine's strong points, and being made of metal helped in the pain department, but these were just the benefits of being what he was. These things were incidental. His style was not built around being an android.

His techniques, his upgrades, almost all of them were based around giving himself an advantage he could exploit. His entire approach to battle was analytical, seeking out his opponent's weaknesses, or at least seeking out his own strengths that would give him the upper hand, and then pressing those advantages until victory was assured. He'd taken up swords like the Jian, thin and flexible lightweight swords that could deal out damage while not being too heavy or cumbersome. They had never felt perfect in his hand, but they were well-rounded and versatile. They went well with his techniques, with his movements. Fluid and calculating.

But they lacked any true advantage. Many swords were fast, especially in the strong metallic grip of an artificial lifeform, but the jian lacked the weight of many larger swords that could really deliver devastating trauma. And yet those larger swords felt wrong too.

He considered the placement of his hands and feet in each of his techniques. Wide stances that melted into tight pivots and back again, hands often in line with one another. At first, all he could see was a sword, but then he moved his hands further apart. He considered a staff, but the staff lacked a true offensive capability and didn't really provide a delivery system for some of his attacks. He needed a point and an edge, something to rend his enemies.

A spear. His style was best suited to a spear. He placed a spear in his hands in his visualizations, a long-tipped yari spear that was like a sword at the end of a staff. It fit his movements perfectly, and provided an advantage he hadn't had before - range. He could keep opponents at a greater distance with such a weapon, and if need be he could even throw it to intercept a fleeing or charging opponent. He watched in wonder as his mental image moved fluidly through each of his techniques, each of his kata, with appropriate but subtle changes to accomodate the length. And when he was done, he stood straight and held the spear upright beside him, the butt of it on the ground and the head to the sky. And in that moment, a dragonfly went to land on the spear's tip.

It was promptly cut in half.

Carmine opened his eyes slowly, and sitting on the ground of this place in front of him was a spear, identical to the one he'd envisioned save for the etching on the head depicting a dragonfly soaring high and free over a long bridge-snake that twisted into the horizon. He would call it Dragonfly Cutter.