19 - The Neko Sennin's Training

Jesse continued to stare up the dauntingly huge tower, it looked so much taller in real life.

'I could try a ki beam to launch myself up… but that'd destroy the area too much and take up a lot of energy anyway. I could also try the plane, but I'm not sure Korin would like that, so nah.'

He continued to think and think, scratching his chin. Until eventually, he thought of something.

"That could work…"

He mumbled to himself. He began to focus his energy into a Kiai while looking down.

'I need to push myself up as high as possible without damaging the ground much… just focus on any energy that adds momentum, power is meaningless here…'

Jesse closed his eyes and focused as much as he could while the native man and Upa looked on. Opening his eyes, Jesse felt his energy focused well exactly how he wanted it to be.

'I think this should work…. Oh yeah, one last thing.'

"By the way, you should keep yourselves safe, in probably just a few days some evil people will come looking for the ball you gave me, you can fend them off but run away for a little while after you do, cause someone devilishly strong is coming after."

"What are you talking about? How do you know all that?!"

The native man felt this boy might be some rogue member of whoever was coming, but he had no idea.

"It doesn't matter, I just do. Just listen to what I said and I'll take care of the evil man when I come back down. See ya!"

Jesse said, finishing with a short raise of his hand.

"Hu-?"

Before the man could question further, Jesse suddenly blasted upwards at inhuman speeds. To the man and the boy, it almost seemed like he just vanished, as dust rose everywhere. Coughing, the man wondered to himself who this was. Up above, Jesse was excitedly smiling.

'It worked! I can't fly but I can boost myself momentarily like this! This could be a good technique to work on some more too.'

Eventually, Jesse's momentum ceased, so he grabbed onto the pillar and hung on.

'It isn't perfect, but it got me more than half-way!'

With that thought, Jesse began to climb for real. Over time he was getting higher and higher, and after a long and tiring climb, he had reached the top.

'F-Finally… almost didn't have enough in me hehe…'

Pulling himself up into the strangely shaped dome-like building at the top, Jesse lied down for a bit, exhausted.

"The sacred water is up here."

Hearing the voice of Korin, Jesse got up and made his way up the stares, over to where the Neko Sennin was waiting.

"Good job making it all the way up here. And faster than anyone before you too!"

'That's strange… his soul is all weird, I can't read his heart at all.'

"I assume you have come to drink the Supreme Holy Water? What are your intentions."

Jesse raised one of his eyebrows slightly as he made a realization.

'He can't read my heart? Maybe cause my soul is foreign? The mind is part of the soul after all.'

"My intentions? I want to gather the Dragon Balls to revive my friend, but the Red Ribbon army is doing that too, so I need to get stronger."

"The red ribbon army? They're a fearsome bunch, but your intentions do seem pure."

Jesse nodded, it might be a good thing he can't read his heart, not only is Jesse not exactly the most pure person, he also didn't want people knowing he was from another universe. Though, in retrospect, Korin trained Roshi too, so it was probably more so the intention then the purity of a person's heart.

"Also, I don't want the water, I just want you to train me."

The water training was a nice idea and everything, but he'd probably get even stronger if he was just directly trained.

"Eh? You don't want the Supreme Holy Water?"

Jesse was still breathing somewhat heavily and sat replied.

"No, I don't want the tap water. Could you… haaa… give me a Senzu though, there's no way I can train like this."

Korin was holding a face of great surprise as he pondered to himself and silence was held in the air.

'Who is this kid? First I can't read his heart, he knows about the Dragon Balls and Senzu, and knows the Supreme Holy Water's trick… Weird, he's an interesting person for sure…'

"Well alright, I'll train you to the best of my ability. Here."

He tossed a tiny green bean to Jesse, which he quickly caught. It was obviously a Senzu Bean, and Jesse quickly ate it. Jesse's stomach was instantly filled entirely, but even better than that, it began to entirely heal his entire body. All his bruises, sores, cuts and somewhat broken bones all instantly healed.

"That feels great!"

Jesse yelled out as he stared at his now perfectly healed body. He obviously knew the effects of Senzu already, but this was still amazing to him. Moving around and punching the air a few times, Jesse smirked and faced Korin.

"Alright, I'm ready."

"Hm, fine, come at me, let me see your strength."

Both of them got into fighting position. Even though Jesse was much taller than the Neko Sennin, he didn't underestimate him at all, he knew Korin was stronger than him after all. Jesse rushed forward at the cat and punched forward, attempting to strike him in the chest. Korin easily dodged by jumping up. He then landed on Jesse's arm and punched him between his eyes.

"Ouch! Damnit!"

Jesse said as he was launched backwards and held his face.

"Alright how about this!"

This time, right before reaching the cat, he used the same technique he used to boost himself up the tower earlier to boost the speed of his punch, though not as much as earlier, since he couldn't concentrate on charging it. Surprised by the sudden increase in Jesse's speed, Korin was only barely able to dodge, his face being skimmed by the punch.

"Impressive. You're clearly strong, but do not use that technique in our training, you must improve your base first and foremost."

Jesse laughed awkwardly and held the back of his head, feeling a bit dumb.

"O-Oh yeah, of course!"

'Obviously…'

He thought to himself. They continued their training, Korin easily beating Jesse over and over. Day after day, he fought and trained, staying and sleeping there while quickly increasing in strength. Meanwhile, time ticked on, and soon his targets would close in.