20 Steady/Growth

Several months passed as Hiro got the hang of his new powers. Hiro was trying his hardest to absorb any and all information and techniques.

For many days Hiro had just let out fire continuously. He kept exhausting his container daily as he bore the strain. Meditating regularly had also helped and he now stood on par with Alvarez Natsu(according to Natsu himself.)

Fire, it could both burn and provide life. When he held this, he had the authority to decide if the thing before him blooms and rejuvenates or turns into ash. And right now ash it needed be.

<Gather and swirl>His new set of super powerful lungs worked to their utmost capacity and sucked air. His core trembled with power as his eyes remained focused. His stomach started to bubble as if it contained a violent storm. He even felt he was ejecting air directly from his stomach, which did not even happen. Instead a ball of concentrated white hot fire appeared before his mouth, his lungs breathed out the air that was inside them moments ago, igniting a beam of concentrated power as if petrol had been sprayed over it.

<Firedragon Roar> The beam produced was many many times bigger than he had expected. But there was definitely room for growth. The 60 feet titanium mannequin was completely destroyed.

Ever since he had produced his first fire, he had spent every waking moment he could manage to make it a second nature to him. As he stood now, it had became akin to breathing. Next he took to practicing his moves/skills. All the basic Fire Dragon slayer moves came easily enough even though he had to deal with a lot of pain in his early attempts.

Next were the secret techniques, for which Hiro had fought tooth and nail to master. If imagining an eternal fire lotus was not hard enough, try imagining a Pheonix made up of exploding flames and an all piercing flame blade. This was even brought to another level when he tried those in Fire Dragon King mode. Lightening Flame mode had been easy to accomplish.

For Destruction Fist, he had to give his hand enough heat and force to blow up a literal mountain. Thus during initial attempts, all the bones in his right hand were destroyed. It was painful indeed and he had to stop training for many days. Infi had healed him but it had been only partially, his healing factor was said to be helping in making his hand stronger, which he had long accepted.

Hiro had to alternate between Vi and Infi's training as he moved forward. Vi had began teaching him different types of fighting styles. He was forced to improve his response time if he didn't want a knuckle sandwich everyday. He was taught to fight blindfolded, trusting his hyper improved sight and smell and during a special part of the training, Hiro's hands were tied to a pole as a blade was swung too close to his face. He had to remain unfazed and unblinking throughout the whole training lest he fail. He was also taught to balance himself properly and deal wit the motion sickness.

<Flashback> On a certain gruesome day

"And pray tell how this will help me?", asked a confused Hiro as he stared at the mechanical horror of his life. He had tried to remain stoic but the sheer amount of trembling must have given him away.

"Oh this will help alright. and I see you seem very excited to try out our new mechanical friend. ", said Vi. Again the same smile, this one never gets old as every time he saw one, he was left plopped on the floor, exhausted and terrified.

Today seemed to give way to something special as in front of him stood a machine used by astronauts. It consisted of a pod with a seat attached to a metal pole which in turn was attached to an axis. The axis was going to rotate at high speeds, in turn rotating the pole and the pod. .

"Yes, you are guessing right! This baby here is a High-G-Centrifuge. It is used to give G-training to astronauts. G- force is the force experienced due to sudden acceleration and can cause blackouts in a person due to lack of blood flow to brain. Astronauts experience this during the take off of the Space shuttle, Jet pilots experience them during steep turns and roll outs etc."

"You are kidding right?? There's no way I will go into that thing when I barely handle buses and trains.", Hiro emphasised to the still smiling face of Vi.

But when nothing happened, Hiro was forced to ask, "Are you mad!!!??? Or are you trying to kill me? Exactly how do you believe I will do this?"

"The answer is simple, you won't. Let's try and hold for 12 seconds okay! I will give you lots of chocolates after the test!!"

"AAAAaaaahhhh", Hiro screamed as he was forcefully inserted into the pod of hell. Even astronauts who have been training for years blacked out in this machine. As the mechanical whirrings increased, Hiro sunk in his seat. No matter how enthusiastic one can be, there are certain things nobody in the freaking planet likes or even dares to attempt, this is one of them.

And as he muttered his last insults, his consciousness started fading away. The contents of his breakfast threatened to be let out as he was spun at 50Gs, a much higher rate than normal, but didn't get a chance as black engulfed his vision, making to the top ten of the Shittiest Day list.

</Flashback End>

As the rays of artificial sun fell over his closed eyes Hiro remembered why today was special. While he had continued his daily life during all these years, like watching anime occasionally, reading manga etc, most of his time was occupied by training daily.

But finally after years of training did his trainers deem him worthy. In fact today he was supposed to end his training arc.

Was it gruesome, YES, was it worthy, YES.

Hiro had learnt all the things Vi and Infi had to offer and now was on the path of perfecting them himself. Over the years, he had learnt many fighting styles and different types of magic and had gained distinction in them. It seemed he had trained enough, yet he felt something was missing.

He felt the urge to make preparations himself. So on the day he completed his training course, which happened to his chronological 70th birthday(Yeah right! I am an old man!) yet still looking like an 18 year old, he finally came up with a wish.

"Have you decided your wishes yet, kiddo?", Vi asked. His relationship with Vi and Infi had only improved and now they really acted like a big-brother. Hiro had quickly forgiven Vi for any and all slights as he knew those were all for his sake and had introduced the man to martial sports a while ago. Vi had even started watching Anime and playing games with him occasionally. Infi was also introduced to female-lead romance stuff and cute things. She had taken a liking to cute cat videos and called them out to be treasures of mankind.

Vi and Infi stood before him as they expected him to wish for something.

Hiro smiled as he remembered that. "Well I guess it is time. You said I could ask for anything right?"

"Yes as long as it doesn't go against some certain rules, Yes anything", answered Vi.

"Well here goes. One, I want a hyperbolic time chamber set to cover a 100 years in 100 seconds."

"Done. I knew you were planning to train on your own", Vi waved his hand as a the familiar structure of Dragon ball building erected itself before his very eyes. The building was red in colour with a dome shaped roof along with two hourglass pillars on it's both sides containing emerald sand and also had dome heads. The Hyperbolic Time Chamber had an entrance at its center, located in a central building with two side wings with housing, food supplies, bathing quarters and sleeping quarters. There are dual giant hourglasses of emerald sand adorning the sides of the building that count down a year within the chamber. A clock on the dome roof of the main part of the building tells the applicable time in the real world. However this one was super charged or rather super slowed, meaning 1 second here means 1 year outside. Hiro had asked this because he knew he was to set on his adventure today midnight and didn't have time to loose as it was already late afternoon.

"Two, I want the finest of raw materials. Lots of them and every kind you can find. "

"Done", said Infi as gigatons upon gigatons of bulk goods gathered around. It infact seemed unlimited but this was over shadowed as the infinite while domain gave way to those materials.

"Three, I want to know if you can summon individuals like you did for Ben and Natsu"

"Yes but we will have to evaluate each individual you want to summon. It can not be more than 50 at a time though. Meaning you will be able to train under only 50 when you decide to enter the chamber."

"Ok I accept. I honestly didn't think you would accept though, but anyways,

Fourth, Natsu told me you could help me gain a controllable Dragon Form? It it true? He said to get that from you and to later train with it."

"Huh, cheeky brat does know how to make Hiro more efficient. So which one shall you like? There are countless dragons across the Neoverse. You will have to choose one to gain it's form and abilities, though there are some of my personal favourites."

"I am a bit overwhelmed here. Let's here your favourites first. Just remember to keep it's size relatively small and as humanoid as possible[Natsu's advice not mine], Natsu says it will help me in controlling it"

"Hmm....You won't want something that is bigger than a galaxy, so Super Shenlong's out of the way, Great Red won't fit the bill too, his fat ass is too big for you anyway. I don't know if you will be able to handle Ankalagon, King Ghidorah/ Godzilla are not working either. Acnologia?---Nah, Big Nope!"

"Ugh!! I am supposed to know everything yet I have to wrack my brain on this!!!", Vi exclaimed as he gripped his hair.

"May I suggest Palkia/ Mega Rayquaza?" suggest Infi as she had slowly come to love Pokemon but was rejected. How someone like Infi had come to love Pokemon of all things was unknown. Sure, he loved Pokemon but how had Infi, who almost teared up at a slight injury on his part, come to cheer at animal brutality(a.k.a pokemon battles) consisting of cute animals was a mystery. He hadn't shown pokemon to Infi until much later as he feared, she would just outright destroy the world which dared hurt such cute little things.

Hiro had been trying to find the right choice throughout the conversation. He didn't want to be a serpentine dragon nor he wanted something too big. He wanted something perfect.

"Okay! There is no need to! I already have someone on my mind now.", Hiro tried to calm down the situation.

"Oho who might that be?", inquired both Vi and Infi.

[Think Hiro think. Which dragon in the world is as powerful as he is kind and compassionate. Natsu said that the dragon's purpose must align with mine. Who in the world....Wait! I got it! He could this have slipped his mind! There were lots of dragons he liked but one was his personal favourite. Sure it might not be the most powerful dragon in existence, but he was the first dragon Hiro had seen.]

Hiro struck a mighty pose as he exclaimed like he was calling upon a king's arrival, reliving fond memories when he used to root for the mighty dragon as he defeated all his opponents, "He is big and powerful as he is kindhearted and noble. He is red and gold as he wields the golden horn on his snout that even puts other mighty dragons to shame. He is the protector of his people as he has saved the world countless times with his partner. He answers upon Card-call as he emerges from a ball. The Ultimate Dragonoid."

""The dragon I am talking about is..."

Next chapter