The Jogger

Hikaru stood in the middle of his bedroom and looked at his right hand.

When he had the image of the same tentacles that had attacked Aimi and focused it to his fingers, they stretched out.

His fingers changed from human skin to slimy transparent grey tentacles.

Just when they were about to touch the floor, he sent a thought to his fingers.

Stop.

After a couple of seconds, the growth slowed and another couple of more seconds passed before they stopped completely.

He imagined them retracting, and after a delay, they began pulling back into his arm.

Stop.

Again, there was a slight delay.

'Interesting.' He thought.

He would understand if there was a delay in growing the cells at the tips of the tendrils. Much like how in cell division, there's a preparation phase for the cell to grow to a necessary size, replicate the DNA and gather all the resources before splitting. It's called interphase in cell mitosis.

The strange thing was that there was a delay in telling the tentacle to stop growing. Even if cell division is instantaneous and the tentacle would immediately grow out from the top, it should stop instantaneously when ordered to cease growing regardless of growth speed.

Hikaru believed that this delay is because of the processing speed in transmitting the signal from one cell to another. Since it was this slow, it couldn't have been at least entirely dependent on nerve impulses.

Hikaru guessed it could be endocrine signalling.

He continued with his experiment, but with a new aim. How long can he grow these tendrils?

Hikaru stepped back to the end of the room and began letting them grow without limit. It kept growing once it touched the floor. It reached to the other side of the wall, so it snaked around and went back to him. Not only that, but it slowed to a halt and almost touched his feet.

He stood against a wall and looked at the tentacle circling the room.

It must be around 7 meters.

He wondered if they would grow longer if he had more resources to work on like muscles, subcutaneous fat, skin, etc.

If he ate another person, how much longer would the tentacle grow and how many tentacles could he make and control?

He tried moving the 7–metre tentacle and realised that only the first 2 meters moved, while the rest undulated as a wave of the motion passed through them.

Did only the first 2 meters grow muscle cells?

He sent his will into his tentacles.

The lengths after 2 meters moved. It seemed like muscle cells were forming through and giving them life.

The muscle growth stopped, and it left him with a limp one metre at the end of the tentacle.

'Hmm. Have I run out of muscle cells?'

He felt he had more biomass, but he used up all the muscle mass.

Considering the complexity and unfamiliarity of control over his transformation and the tentacles, it's faster to focus on his untransformed body, but he should still improve his skill in manipulating his appendages. After all, it may be his trump card.

Other parasites could be practising and improving their skill right now.

He transformed his hand and reverted it repeatedly to see if he could improve his transformation speed.

After 5 minutes, he began noticing an improvement.

With no one to compare to, Hikaru wasn't sure if his progress was above average or not. So, he worked harder but always reviewed his progress and looked for the most efficient method so that he always maximised his learning.

Work hard but work smart.

Hikaru also assessed whether the way he was reviewing his progress was the most unbiased and most optimum. He was essentially his mentor and the mentor's quality assurance officer.

As a result, Hikaru quickly mastered his transformation speed.

In a blink of an eye, his arm disappeared, and a tentacle appeared in its place.

There was hardly any time to see the transition.

After an hour and a half of that training, Hikaru moved on.

He aimed at making his tendrils grow to 3 metres with muscle before changing it back.

After 30 minutes, he noticed a 10-second reduction in growth speed.

This is mostly his cells learning how to migrate faster and where to go.

There was hardly any improvement in the signal processing speed. It would still take a couple of seconds for his cells to respond to a 'grow' or 'stop' order.

He practised for hours and hours trying to build up muscle memory and increase control over his transformation. He repeated the process without stopping, even when he heard his Father quietly come in through the front door.

Hikaru checked the time. It had just past nine.

His father seemed to be asleep or perhaps crying quietly in his room.

Hikaru opened his bedroom window. The humid air carried the scent of a wild forest. He looked down to the grass below.

The drop was one storey high. 4.3 metres.

Feeling confident he jumped out and landed on his feet. It didn't hurt, but he felt the shock.

He could probably handle a couple of stories higher before he would injure himself. You'd always have a higher fall distance than vertical jump height.

Curious, Hikaru jumped. On the way up, he saw his bedroom door!

This meant he jumped about 4 metres high from the centre of mass.

If he lifted his legs in the air, he could jump over anything higher.

Upon landing, he saw a 50-year-old runner 'jogging still' outside his fence as he was staring at Hikaru with a shocked expression.

The jogger must have seen him make the high jump. He shook his head and jogged away.

Hikaru's entire body felt exhilarated during the jump. It's time for a test run.

***

While doing his daily run, he saw a student suddenly bend his knees and jump as high as the bedroom window on the first floor.

He stopped travelling distance but kept his feet jogging in one spot.

He could not believe his eyes. Did he really see that?

Was the student practising high jumps for Sports Day?

'No! Such a height is impossible even among professionals!' He thought.

The best world record jump was 2.45 m by Javier Sotomayor from Spain. No one, especially a kid, could beat that!