"You think you can run faster than me? Who's to say you won't get tired first."
Botan didn't reach his top speed so he didn't know who was faster.
'It's a bluff...'
But Hikaru had a point. Even if he ran faster, Daichi's house was far away. Yokohama Shinmidori general hospital was closer to him and about 40 of the staff were parasites but no number of small fries would help against Hikaru. Hikaru might even have better stamina and catch up to him when he was tired. It was risky leaving his back open to Hikaru if he did run. He had to at least make an opening.
"After I kill you, I'll send your head to Daichi in a box. I can't wait to see his reaction."
Rigid cords popped out from his neck and veins pulsed on his temple. His face started changing colour. His enhanced flesh changed from hardened pink flesh to red and his body proportions except for his height was doubled.
He was the embodiment of rage.
Botan only realised now that this was what he wanted. He wasn't smart enough to entertain Daichi in a conversation and he always felt left out whenever Hikaru was around. His presence was always minuscule around them. He had grown jealous of Hikaru who always stole his master's attention. Now was the chance to get rid of him.
Botan leaned his back down into a runner's standing start position and bolted towards Hikaru, exploding a cloud of dirt from where he pushed off from.
Botan was faster than before and the distance between them was 5 metres, to begin with, leaving Hikaru only 0.2 seconds to process and react. Hikaru didn't move while Botan was zipping towards him.
He must be moving too fast for Hikaru to react.
'All that big talk but who's standing there looking like an idiot!'
Botan punched Hikaru in the face.
*Boom! *
A cloud of dirt covered his vision again. Botan pulled his hand back after punching but to his surprise, he couldn't move his fist at all!
If he looked closely, there was a black silhouette in the cloud.
The air was now clear enough to see Hikaru smiling while clasping his fist with one hand. There was a crater larger than before below Hikaru's feet as that punch was a few times stronger.
'Impossible! He's much smaller than me!'
"What's wrong? As I recall you smiled when you came to me. Did you think that you were too fast for me to see?"
Hikaru did a turning kick as he let go of Botan's fist.
*Bam*
Botan smashed into another house in the bedroom. A man and a woman screamed as they got up from their bed. The couple hid in their corners when Botan got up but he ignored them as he zipped towards Hikaru.
He was about to do a straight punch when Hikaru disappeared.
Botan turned around and saw Hikaru leaning against a car with his arms crossed. Hikaru gestured telling him to "come at me" with his fingers.
Enraged, Botan dashed but his fist smashed into the car window.
The secret to Hikaru's overwhelming strength despite a small stature was thanks to his absorbing ability. The strongest ability in his arsenal.
In fast twitch muscles, it uses the ATP/Creatine phosphate metabolism for energy. The "tri" in adenosine triphosphate suggests that this molecule contains three phosphate atoms.
There exists a specific atomic bond that keeps the phosphate atoms together in the molecule. When the phosphate is split off from the molecule causing ATP to become adenosine diphosphate (ADP), the energy released from that broken phosphate bond is used to power the contraction of the muscle fibre, providing energy for about 3 seconds.
The creatine phosphate then sacrifices one of its phosphate atoms to ADP, thus converting it to ATP so that the cycle continues. This gives an output of around 10-12 seconds.
For parasites to heal and transform their bodies fast, their cells were operating at much higher speeds than normal human cells. This meant every single physiological process like cellular respiration was fast and so muscular contractions were also fast.
Hikaru had practised increasing the speed of his cellular activity, cell migration and assembly/disassembly during his transformation training in his spare time. However, most of the improvements came from absorbing humans and parasites.
In addition, to absorbing the experience, genetic data and 3D data of anatomical structures of tiny cells to organs and limbs, his cells have "learnt" over countless times for themselves and derived the shortest paths. His cells have almost become sentient, every one of them...
Hikaru was much stronger than Botan because his body was producing ATP over a thousand-fold faster than a human being. In absorbing so many people, Hikaru had gained biological manipulation ability.
The user can manipulate life at the cellular level including but not limited to genetic changes and physical distortions and increase in biological function
He could change the shape or function of his cells and others, once his cells come in physical contact with them. It could be said that cell absorption was an application of this ability.
The build-up of toxic wastes including lactic acid and oxidative stress were also quickly expunged and remedied by his cells, removing the limiting factor of muscle power.
Hikaru also tweaked one more thing to increase his muscle strength.
Muscle fibres in a relaxed state, have a protein called Troponin C covering the active site. To make a contraction, the myosin head needs to stretch and grab onto the actin filament and then pull. This flex is essentially what makes muscle fibres contract.
The Troponin C blocks the active site, preventing the myosin head to connect with the actin filament. Before a contraction, calcium ions remove the troponin C causing the active site to be free. The calcium ions then exit through calcium ion channels to be reused later.
Hikaru had mass-produced calcium ions for this process to happen a lot quicker. Power is equal to work done over time. By making his muscles contract faster, he increased the explosive power of his muscles.
*bang bang*
Hikaru tapped the roof of the car with his shoe causing Botan to look up.