NOVEL NEXT [2] A New Life; The Best Path
Chapter 2: A New Life; The Best Path
[Third Person Point of View – General]
Ai Hoshino was an incredible talent; she personally was aware of that. She was a very good liar, which made her a very successful idol.
Yet, being a teenager, it’s not very unexpected that she would get into scandals. It was unfortunate that this particular scandal was particularly disastrous. Pregnancy.
From a foreigner's perspective, Japan’s concept of Idols would be considered disgusting and filthy.
They are supposed to be pure, innocent, virgins. That was a stupid thing to expect from a popular figure, yet their fans couldn’t help but fantasize about that delusion.
So it was troublesome that she got pregnant. Luckily, everything ended up well in the end, even if the doctor she had hoped the delivery would proceed by, had gone missing on the exact day. Everything ended up well though, and she gave birth to twins, one boy, and one girl. Both of them were super geniuses.
It had been a year since then. Naturally, Ai had remained away from the public’s eye at this time, and the fire of her fame had died out a lot. She hadn’t been active for that long, after all, even if the bit of time she was active was super-hit.
“As of today, the Idol Ai will make her comeback!”
A greenish-blonde-haired man said, grinning as he pointed his finger at the board behind him. It was filled with writings, and plans for Ai to return to the market.
As if startled by his loud voice, the little infant girl began to cry. The room was a studio and occupied by five people, amongst whom were two little babies. Ai sat on a sofa, with her two children in her arms. She stared at the man who just spoke, Ichigo Saitou, the director of Strawberry Productions, the company for which Ai worked.
Beside him, a strawberry-blonde-haired woman stood, helping with the board. She was his wife, Miyako Saitou.
Seeing the little girl cry, Ai leaned toward her face with a worried look. “Aww, what’s wrong Aqua?”
“That one’s Ruby.” The director paused and gave her a look, looking stunned. “Are you sure you are their mother?”
“Oh, sorry, I am bad with names.” Ai apologized, ignoring the director and nudging her nose with Ruby, who stopped her crying. “Now go on, director, continue.”
The director sighed, while his wife shook her head, as Aquamarine Hoshino just observed the scenario in silence.
* * *
[First Person Point of View – Aqua]
I have to admit; my mother isn’t quite suitable to be a mother. It made sense, given she was just sixteen, and I didn’t really blame her for anything – other than being reckless and getting pregnant at this age.
Ai had no idea on how to handle us kids outside her home. She wanted to bring us to her work, to the park, but obviously, that would be a disaster. The director agreed to none of those requests. It was already bad that she had two kids, but it would only be worse if this became public news. Thanks to Japan's stupid idol policy, she had to keep a low profile and pretend to be single for the public.
“If any emergency comes, we’ll take care of them. Don't worry, you can leave them at home, I'll leave Miyako here to babysit them.” That was what the director agreed at last.
His wife had tried to protest but was shut down promptly. Miyako was a woman in her early 20s, she got married to the director and obviously envisioned a bright future, so the idea of babysitting didn't fit well with her.
After that, Ai left with the director, leaving us with Miyako. My twin sister seemed to want to bother the woman for fun, while I returned to my room for more useful work.
Naturally, I've been [Cycling] since I was born. I didn't like how weak I was, and the fastest way to overcome that was to help my body with the ambient energy in the air. It's not that big of a deal, but my mind is much clearer even in this baby brain, and my body is stronger than normal, close to a five-year-old.
As someone of my power and experience, I have seen countless martial art techniques and even power systems. On one planet, some may use Qi in one way, while on another they may train in these arts in a completely different manner. I've used my vast knowledge, at least the ones remaining, to choose which of those systems I'll be following.
This power system has 10 stages. With the start being [Foundation] level, where I am at right now. This is how ranking follows:
[Foundation]
[Copper]
[Iron]
[Jade]
[Gold]
The five other stages after this are each groundbreaking, so I'll leave them be for now. I chose this particular path because it is strong, and also versatile enough that it'd allow me to use my knowledge from my isekai world into play.
Cycling for babies who haven't even turned one-year-old is dangerous, and I'm only doing this because the foundation stage is relatively safe. However, this particular system allows fast growth from a young age, so after I turn one-year-old, I should be able to train more actively instead of what I am doing right now.
I am not using any Cycling Techniques yet. Oh, Cycling Techniques are known as breathing techniques in layman's terms. It will help me absorb the natural energy faster, but as I said, I am a baby — it can be dangerous for my future growth. So, what I did is to run around, make my body tired, and fall asleep. My body naturally recovers the energy in my sleep and absorbs the ambient energy in the air.
Normally, that won't happen. After all, if you could absorb the energy in the air just by sleeping, wouldn't everyone become a top-tier martial artist? That's the exact thought I had in the distant past, and so taught my body a simple Cycling Technique that works even when I sleep. I can control the rate I absorb, and since I'm sleeping — sending my body in a state of recovery — there isn't any danger.
So, I strolled over to my casket and stood up near it. I grabbed the border of the thing, which was a bit too tall for me, and pulled my body upwards.
I did a pull-up.
Then I did another, another, and then another. Just when I was about to do another, the door burst open.
"Hey, Aqua~ come play with your sister, I am bu-"
That Miyako woman walked inside with my twin sister in her arms. They both paused, their eyes looking at me as I was performing pull-ups.
I reacted fast and struggled. No need to worry about it, they caught me midway, and they didn't see me perform a rep. So I just had to pull myself into the casket, which I did, and then dropped in the bed, closing my eyes and pretending as if it was always my goal to come here and sleep.
"Oh,"
The woman muttered something, closing the door and walking away.
"I almost thought… haah, no way, am I going crazy?"
Filthy wench, how dare she interrupt my training arc? I made a mental note to punish her for her audacity, before quickly shaking the thoughts off.
No, nope, this wasn't the wuxia world of crazy young masters and arrogant lords, I ought to be a bit more benevolent than usual.
* * *
It has finally been a year since I was born in this world. Yesterday was my and my twin's birthday and it was bothersome. Too loud and too much cake on my face.
However, as the cake tasted good, I decided to forgive them. I enjoyed the day after that and waited until the next day came.
Today Ai, my mother, has a concert, so I will have some time to improve.
It still felt weird calling her my mother, both because of her age and because I haven't considered anyone as my "mom" since my first death, and it wouldn't change this time either. The longer time goes, the harder it becomes to consider anyone as my family. I did have a few whom I had called brothers and sisters due to sharing the same sect or masters, though there were only a few throughout my lifetime whom I truly counted that way, enough to set it on stone with a cup of sake, but even my masters have never touched the status of my parents.
It seems my twin, Ruby, is going to attend the concert. Ai wouldn't know since Miyako will be taking Ruby secretly.
Ruby is weird, she's a creepy fan of Ai. It hasn't changed even after she's been reborn as Ai's daughter. She wasn't a bad girl, so it's fine.
A few months earlier, Miyako seemed to endure enough babysitting and had almost given into her dark impulsive thoughts. She wanted to sell the information that Ai has kids to bag some big cash. At that moment, I was deciding if I should kill her with my toy knife or not, but Ruby intervened before that and pretended to be some Shinto God to scare the older woman. Since then, she's been basically worshiping Ruby, while I continued pretending to be clueless.
It would be too bothersome if that little girl knew I was a reincarnator too, she was so annoying as it is. It may come out someday since I wasn't exactly a stranger to her, I am the same doctor Gorou who had a special place for Ruby's previous incarnation, after all, but not today. This wasn't the time.
If I was going to take this life seriously, I instead needed to get stronger first. Ai will die soon, my vague memories didn't tell me exactly in what year, but I am sure it'd happen when I would still be a kid. So, I have to get strong enough to protect her.
It's true I didn't consider her as my mother, but I have promised myself in the past to be indebted to all who bore me for 9 months. Besides, the Gorou part of myself would just feel shitty stopping it while he could.
So, after Ai left, with Miyako and Ruby soon following, I got to work. I had the whole house to myself, and since I was finally one-year-old, it was time I made work.
It was time to reach [Copper] level.
I sat down on a carpet, crossed-legged and took a long breath in. My body shuddered and I let my breath out.
Now, this was the time I had to choose which Cycling Technique I'd choose, the Path I would choose.
In the world I was born in, it didn't run on these Paths or even the same power system, I only learned of this after I ascended and got to know about the other worlds in that universe. In that entire universe, this power system is the greatest.
The concept of these [Paths] in my head has always been that of a Skill Tree. There are all sorts of paths, and choosing one would give me skills from that path over time. Though the thing for normal people is that, they can only learn one path, otherwise their bodies and souls would crumble. I never had that issue with my soul, and I could also make my body strong too, so I could always learn more than one path after reaching a threshold with the path I'm currently on.
Still, the primary path that I choose will be useful when I'm still weak. These paths run on Qi, and thankfully the ambient energy in the air of this world is bare — it doesn't have any specific quality of Mana, Chakra, or Qi by default — so I can absorb it in any way that fancies me. That's lucky for me, since Qi is a superior energy to Mana. If a man had a large amount of mana, he would still die of old age, but if a man had the same amount of Qi, they will be young forever.
With that settled, I had to choose carefully.
I have five paths in mind currently, amidst which I have to choose from. They’re as follows:
Path of the Celestial Radiance: A path running on the brilliant nine-colored Qi, a variation of pure Qi but with more destructive prowess. It can earn similar results to the legendary Hollow King path, though the mana-negation part is less focused, in exchange for stronger attack powers. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your eyes will be transformed into the Nine-Colored Eyes.
Path of the Black Flame: A path running on a mixture of Qi affinities between darkness and fire, turning you into a machine of destruction. Experienced users can demolish a continent into mere ashes with the [Black Dragon’s Dance] attack. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, you’d gain access to partial dragonification, as this is a path derived from a line of Black Dragons.
Path of the Raging Sky: A path focused on storm Qi; a mixture of water, wind, lightning, and cloud affinity. Experienced users can call forth typhoons with a flick of their fingers, and destroy several mountain ranges with another. Users can also heal wounds of their own and others, even spiritual ones; experienced users can even grant spiritual pathways to people who lack them. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, you’d gain access to a passive aura of electricity around you, that’d send slight shivers of relaxation by default but can turn offensive to burn and pulverize any sudden attack or attacker.
Path of the Darkest Sun: A path focused on dark steller Qi; a mixture of star and moon affinity, a variation of Yin and Yang. This provides the fastest growth through Cycling, as there is stellar Qi everywhere in both and night, and moon Qi at night. Experienced users can call forth pillars of solar energies from the sky, erasing cities with each, and also devouring darkness that can swallow civilization like the maw of eldritch horror. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your eyes would transform into the Eyes of the Sun and Moon.
Path of the Hungry Deep: A path focused on devouring Qi; a mixture of blood and hunger affinity. Outside the usual advancement using Cycling Techniques, this allows the users to grow by another means. They can [Devour] the physical and spiritual strength of magical beasts and their latent authority, using them to empower the user. This devour is only usable on monsters and beasts, and is unusable on a humanoid creature due to the fundamental structure of the technique. Upon reaching the [Gold] rank, your forearms would be blackened and will give you an urge of constant hunger.
I had my eyes closed as I looked at the text materializing from my soul reflection. I had these five options in mind, with each equal in power level one way or another. None of these was multiverse level on their own, I’d need to expand my own power level that far to use these techniques on a multiversal scale, allowing me to erase galaxies with a sneeze, and universes with a punch.
Even though I’d been preparing for this moment for a year, I hesitated.
For a long moment, I wondered which path I should choose.
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Q – What Path is your pick?
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