It was impossible to say how much time had passed, but when Kaito woke up, he felt completely refreshed. Even the injuries from the day before had mostly healed. He gathered a handful of snow, melted it into ice-cold water with a spark of fire, and scrubbed his face clean, returning to his usual cute, boyish appearance.
He struck a pose in the cave and ran through a set of completely nonsensical katas. Afterward, he felt that his body was pretty much back to normal.
"Alright then, time for my first time."
Kaito took out the Chakra Refining Technique booklet, flipped to the page on the meditation method, and studied it several times. After confirming he understood it correctly, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.
Following the steps described, he concentrated his mind, letting his thoughts slowly sink back into his body.
Maybe a minute passed, maybe an hour, or maybe even a whole day. But eventually, in the darkness of his mind, small points of blue light began to appear. These blue dots connected, forming a small stream that flowed along a fixed path.
So this is chakra? A flicker of understanding ignited in Kaito's mind.
However, before a smile could even form on his face, a flash of gold appeared from nowhere, suddenly transforming into a raging river that completely swallowed the small blue stream.
"???"
The emotional turmoil was too great, and Kaito was immediately jolted out of his meditative state. He felt an immense emptiness and weakness in his body, as if he had been turning in a week's worth of homework non-stop. He couldn't support himself and his upper body collapsed, leaving him flat on his back.
"Is refining chakra supposed to be this exhausting?"
But that wasn't the most important thing right now.
Kaito quickly gathered his focus and entered the rainbow-hued space, just in time to see the last speck of blue light being absorbed into Arceus's body.
"Now this is just too much..."
All the chakra he had worked so hard to refine had been stolen before he even got a chance to experience it.
Suddenly, Kaito's eyes lit up. A dazzling light burst forth from Arceus's body, releasing a large mass of golden energy. Most of it swirled above its head, gradually condensing into a new, phantom-like plate.
"A new plate?!" Kaito's jaw dropped in astonishment. This was completely beyond his imagination. He squinted, observing that the plate wasn't entirely illusory; there was a tiny, solid corner on its lower left side.
"This is a new plate that Arceus is creating by absorbing my chakra. Does that mean this new plate represents chakra? But is chakra even considered a type? If it fully forms, what kind of effect will it have?"
Too many questions swirled in Kaito's mind.
"Well, at least after it eats my chakra, it gives me back this golden energy."
The growth of the golden energy nourished his body and enhanced the power of his skills, making it more than a fair trade for the chakra. The only drawback was that he probably wouldn't be able to use the flashy and diverse ninjutsu for the time being. But if he had to choose between ninjutsu and Pokémon moves, he would choose Pokémon moves without hesitation.
In the past few days, while preparing for a potential fight, Kaito had learned three new moves: the Ice-type moves Powder Snow and Ice Punch, and the Fire-type move Fire Spin. Other than not having a chance to use Ice Punch, the other two had been a huge help in the previous battle. So, continuing to learn new moves wasn't a bad deal. It was certainly much faster than learning ninjutsu from scratch.
Besides, many plot points in the story hinted that chakra might be "toxic."
After thinking it through, Kaito's smile returned. He walked over to a light blue plate. With an enemy still wandering outside, he needed to increase his strength as quickly as possible.
Back in the cave, Kaito stared at the wall with a serious expression. He slowly lifted one foot and placed it on the surface. He tugged at it, and after confirming it was secure, he lifted his other foot, placing it on the wall as well, his entire body now at a ninety-degree angle to it.
After holding the position for a minute, Kaito tried to walk up the wall. He hadn't taken more than a few steps before he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"Not bad, that's progress," Kaito said, rubbing the back of his head nonchalantly and giving himself a thumbs-up.
After continuously feeding it chakra, he found that his control over the golden energy was improving. He tried concentrating the energy on the soles of his feet and found that he really could walk on walls. Although it only lasted for a few seconds, it was a good start.
He was about to try again when a beam of light shone through a crack in the cave entrance and hit his face, causing his eyes to narrow.
"Could it be?" Kaito froze for a second, then scrambled out of the cave, his eyes wide as he looked at the world outside.
The heavy, feather-like snowflakes were no longer falling. In their place was a ray of warm sunlight.
The snow had stopped.
The blizzard had lasted for more than half a month. During that time, he had only gone out once for food, managing to find a nest of snow rabbits, which he fed the pills to. After confirming the pills weren't poisonous, Kaito dared to try them himself. As expected, they were Military Rations Pills, which solved his food problem.
The rest of the time, he hid in the cave and trained. He learned several more Pokémon moves, all of them Fire or Ice type. After a while, he inevitably got bored and ended up digging out a three-bedroom, two-living-room-sized cave. If he had been stuck there any longer, he might have built an entire underground palace.
Now that the snow had stopped, Kaito eagerly packed his things, ready to leave the cave and take advantage of the good weather—however long it might last—to start his journey home.
"The direction the sun rises... that should be the direction of the village, right...?"
He tried to recall his meager knowledge of geography from his past life. He realized that probably wasn't a reliable way to find the village.
"Whatever. I'll just head toward the sun. As long as I don't walk in circles, I should be fine." Kaito shouldered his pack and began to walk, step by step, toward the sun.
Having learned the art of wall-climbing, walking in the snow was now as easy as walking on flat ground, much less strenuous than before. Kaito was no longer the only figure in the snowy landscape; many animals, forced by hunger, had come out to forage. They brought life and vitality back to the snowfield and also provided him with a source of food.
At night, Kaito found a cave, started a fire, and roasted a snow rabbit he had caught.
"Ugh, it's a shame I don't have any chili powder. It just has no soul," he grumbled, chewing on the rabbit meat that tasted only of fire. He couldn't help but think back to all the delicious food from his past life.
He quickly finished the meat, extinguished the fire, and set off again. When he could no longer walk, he dug a hole and slept inside.
A few days later, the sky turned gray again. Amidst the howling wind, Kaito stood on a high slope and looked into the distance. He saw three large mountains clustered together, their shapes strongly resembling three wolf heads.
"The Land of Iron... Did I unknowingly cross the border and come to the Land of Iron?"
The Land of Iron was different from other countries. Its military force was composed of samurai, not ninja. These samurai used swords as their weapons, and swordsmanship replaced ninjutsu as their primary fighting technique. Some highly skilled samurai could often kill a ninja before they could even perform a jutsu, but these were always a minority. Compared to the mainstream ninja, samurai were still at a disadvantage. In the later, world-destroying battles of the timeline, swordsmanship played a negligible role.
But in the early stages, using a sword was not a bad choice.
Remembering that Captain Okihira had certified him as having a talent for swordsmanship, Kaito, after a brief moment of thought, decided to enter the Land of Iron.