A week had passed since Kaito met Knight Owl, and during that time they had kept in touch.
Well, "in touch" meant that while Kaito was helping someone, Knight Owl would appear out of nowhere or send him a message in some mysterious way.
In those encounters, Knight Owl tried to find out more about him.
Kaito only shared half-truths: he talked about his speed powers, mentioned that he was an orphan, and that he had awakened his abilities just a few days ago but he hid everything else: the rest of his powers and, of course, anything related to the Lords.
Finally, after that week, Knight Owl trusted him enough.
Not enough to introduce him to that world's version of the Justice League or show him his secret base, but enough to consider him one of the good guys.
And as one of the good guys — with speed powers but not full control over them — he needed training.
That was exactly what Kaito had been aiming for from the start.
After meeting Bunnyx, he realized that last time he rushed straight into completing his mission and forgot something important: getting to know the world he was in.
That's how he discovered the existence of the King of Speed, a hero from New York with super speed who, although not officially part of United Heroez, worked closely with them.
So Kaito started acting like a young rookie hero and a huge fan of his. His goal was simple: to get accepted as his student.
Kaito had seen plenty of stories about speedsters — mostly Flash — but when he tried to copy some of their feats, he realized it wasn't as easy as it looked.
He needed a teacher.
And so he ended up in his current situation.
"Alright, keep spinning, kid. Don't step off the line," ordered his temporary mentor, the King of Speed, "Keep the center in the same place the whole time."
Kaito was running in circles, following the line marked on the ground. As he sped up, the leaves inside the circle began to lift, swirling violently.
"Perfect! It's working. Now, without stepping off the circle, lean your body slightly toward where you want to direct it."
Trying to lean at that speed without losing balance turned out to be much harder than he thought.
Kaito drifted out of the circle, and the leaves fell.
"Not bad for your first time. Try again."
Following his instructions, Kaito tried again… and after several failed attempts, finally succeeded.
"Well done, kid," said the King of Speed, stepping closer, "It only took you two hours longer than it took me."
"And I thought I was a fast learner…" Kaito replied, half laughing.
The King of Speed smiled too.
"Don't take it so hard. I had to learn to stop a tornado first in an emergency. After that, learning to create them was much easier."
Curious, Kaito asked how that had happened.
His teacher explained: to stop a tornado, it wasn't enough to run in the opposite direction; you had to keep the center of your circle aligned with the tornado's center, which was constantly moving. Though it sounded simple, it was purely a matter of precision.
"Of course, you could always go for the easier method and just keep running, even if you're not perfectly in sync it would still work, it would just take longer," added the King of Speed, "But at that moment, those few extra seconds meant saving or losing human lives. Want to learn it?"
"Of course."
In front of him, his teacher created a tornado.
Just as he warned, it was much harder. Kaito took half a day to stop it effectively.
Days went by like this: Kaito learning different speed techniques.
---
"Alright, keep running…! Stop! Now, try it!"
"Arghh!"
Kaito let out a pained grunt, holding his hand. The King of Speed came over to check.
His hand was injured from the inside, though it wasn't bleeding; instead, it was completely burned.
"It's okay. You'll heal in a few hours and we'll try again."
A few hours later, Kaito was at it again.
"Last time you tried to hold the lightning before releasing it," his teacher explained, "It doesn't work like that. You don't throw the lightning: you just redirect the electricity your body generates when running."
Even so, Kaito kept failing.
To help him, they set up receivers that would naturally draw the electricity toward them.
That way, Kaito memorized the sensation and finally managed to recreate it by himself.
A bolt of lightning shot from his arms, striking the training dummy and charring it completely.
"Good. Let's move on."
---
"This one was easier…" said Kaito, standing among several toppled dummies.
Beneath his feet, the ground was raised in a circle, as if it had exploded outward.
"It's just about punching the air," the King of Speed explained, "Even an ordinary person could do it; the difference is our speed makes it devastating."
"Can I enjoy my achievement a little?" Kaito protested.
"Enjoy it after the next one."
The last trick he'd teach him was the one Kaito most wanted to learn.
"Feel your body," his teacher said, "Even when still, it keeps moving. Feel the air flowing, your cells vibrating… Now make them vibrate in unison. Like tuning a radio, find the right frequency for the object in front of you."
Kaito focused.
He tried to phase his finger through the wall… but failed. Instead, he destroyed it, hurting his hand.
He tried with every finger until none were left uninjured. He had to wait until he healed before trying again.
This was the hardest part of his training: it took him more than two days to master it.
Though, truthfully, he had figured it out earlier but wanted to be sure he could do it with total control.
Then he had to learn to make objects he held vibrate too.
That added difficulty, but not as much as the first part, so he mastered it quickly.
"Alright, that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll teach you how to use all this in combat, so get a good rest," said the King of Speed, with a hint of pride in his voice.
"Got it, master. See you tomorrow."
"See you."
Kaito stayed there for a moment alone in the training area.
Finally, he left for his residence in this world.
When he arrived, a portal opened behind him.
"Are you done?" asked Bunnyx.
"Yeah. Tomorrow morning we leave."
After more than a week of training, Kaito was ready to go.
As for practical uses he probably knew more than any local hero, thanks to all the stories he knew.
"Speaking of that… I need your help with something" Kaito said, smiling.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Bunnyx replied, but still listened to his plan.
---
The next morning, Kaito was running over the sea, heading for Europe.
Suddenly, something approached from behind.
"I was hoping Knight Owl was wrong but it looks like he was right...as always."
Kaito ignored the King of Speed's words and sped up.
Of course, that didn't stop him: the hero overtook him and attacked head-on.
"If you stop right now, I won't get serious."
At that speed, Kaito shouldn't have had time to react.
But even before his teacher moved, Kaito had already slipped under him.
He took advantage of the surprise to throw a kick backward, but the King of Speed dodged it and countered with a punch.
Kaito, as if he knew exactly what was coming, raised his arms to catch his fist.
But halfway through the attack, his teacher vibrated and phased through his arms.
The sensation of someone passing through his body shocked him for an instant.
However, without even looking back, Kaito ducked in time.
The King of Speed was surprised: there was no way Kaito could have seen the attack.
Without giving him time to think, Kaito spun with a sweep, knocking him down, and struck him before he hit the water.
The hero was sent flying, bouncing across the surface.
He recovered in milliseconds and threw a lightning bolt, but when he turned, he saw Kaito had done the same.
He barely managed to move to avoid the strike, but that gave Kaito the chance to close in, landing a punch from the side.
The King of Speed tried to dodge, but Kaito's fist stopped just a millimeter from where his head had been, creating a sonic boom.
The blast sent him flying again, and the thunder made his ears ring.
In that state, Kaito landed several more blows, weakening him further.
"I'm not planning to kill anyone. You can leave, you know?" said Kaito honestly.
He had come to respect him, even in such a short time.
He was almost sure the hero was chasing him because of something Knight Owl had discovered… and if Knight Owl was comparable to Batman, he probably already knew Kaito was after the Miraculous.
The King of Speed looked at him for a few seconds… and finally sighed.
"I'll trust you, kid. I hope I'm not wrong."
After saying that, he disappeared into the distance.
Kaito kept running until he reached the shore.
There, a portal opened and Bunnyx came out, visibly exhausted.
"Finally…" she sighed.
"How long did it take?" Kaito asked.
"How long? Five hours! Aren't you supposed to have the same powers? How did he beat you with a single move?"
Kaito was surprised by the time. He knew he couldn't defeat someone with more experience on his own, so he asked Bunnyx to tell him the King of Speed's future moves.
The problem was that every time Kaito changed something, the entire future changed too.
So Bunnyx had to watch the future, warn him, look again, correct, and so on, over and over… until they finally beat him.
Though for Kaito only a few minutes had passed, for Bunnyx it had been hours of watching and repeating the whole fight.
"Well, this is it" said Kaito, looking toward the horizon "Let's go get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous."
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