Ishi stood in the clearing, focusing on the flickering light of his finger gun as he aimed at another set of trees. He had been firing off "shots" into the forest for a while, each one disintegrating anything it touched. But something was nagging at the back of his mind. After a few more rounds, he paused, furrowing his brow in thought.
The trees he aimed at vanished instantly, without any delay. There was no sound of the "attack" traveling, no sense of motion, just an immediate result.
He aimed at a distant rock and fired again. The rock vaporized without the slightest indication of an attack traveling through the air.
"Interesting," Ishi muttered to himself, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
He fired a few more times, confirming that the attacks didn't seem to travel. They simply "happened" wherever he intended them to. There was no energy moving from point A to point B. It bypassed the need for conventional distance altogether, like space itself was irrelevant.
Satisfied with his test, Ishi turned back toward his home. His body blurred as he dashed through the forest, trees and bushes whipping past him at hypothetical speeds. In seconds, he skidded to a halt at the edge of the clearing where his family's home was.
His father was already there, stretching and loosening up for what was clearly going to be a serious sparring session. He looked up as Ishi arrived, grinning. "Back already? I was starting to think you were going to make me wait forever."
Ishi blinked in surprise. They didn't even question where he had been. Instead, his father tossed him a sword with a casual, yet precise, flick of his wrist. Ishi caught it out of reflex, looking at the weapon in his hands.
"I've been waiting for this," his father joked, leading Ishi a bit further away from the house, closer to the edge of the forest. "Don't want to wreck the place, after all."
Ishi's surprise deepened. His father had anticipated potential destruction, even in a casual spar. It made sense now why they were heading closer to the forest, away from anything that could be easily demolished.
Once they were in position, the atmosphere changed. The easygoing smile on his father's face was replaced by a steely focus, and Ishi could feel a shift in the air. His father's aura, previously relaxed, had become charged with intensity.
Ishi moved his head to the right, trying to see past the sword in his hand. But his father was gone.
"What—?" Before he could literally finish the thought, Ishi felt a presence to his left. He snapped his head around and saw his father right next to him, smiling calmly as he swung his sword in a wide arc.
Ishi barely managed to twist his body out of the way, but the force of the swing sent him flying back, crashing through a tree. The impact snapped the trunk like a twig, sending splinters everywhere as Ishi tumbled to a stop.
He panted, realizing that his young body couldn't keep up with his father's speed.
He could feel it. His powers, they were being suppressed. It wasn't just his physical form that was limiting him. The Goddess had clearly sealed a significant portion of his strength, likely to prevent any accidental destruction.
Ishi pulled himself up, wincing at the soreness in his muscles.
He looked up, meeting his father's eyes across the clearing. His father was smiling.