Once they reached the island, Lisa Lisa threw them into the Pillar of Hell.
It rose twenty-four meters high, slanted steeply, and its surface was slick with oil.
To climb it barehanded, they had to latch on with Ripple. It was a brutal test of stamina, focus, and control.
"You rotten hag! First day here and you dump me in this death trap!"
"Just wait. When I get out I will dream up a hundred tricks to pay you back."
"AAAHHH!"
Joseph tried again and again, only to slide down. Caesar had already reached four meters.
Joseph looked up, then, flushed with shame and anger, tore his clothes into strips.
He knotted them into a rope and looped it around the pillar to add friction.
"Hah. So many died here? They must have been idiots."
"Just wait, you nasty woman. When I get out, I will teach you a lesson."
He inched upward - until a flash of light, a thrown blade, and the rope snapped.
"The Pillar of Hell rejects anything not Ripple. If you want to climb, do it with Ripple."
Lisa Lisa's voice was cool.
"Hey, hey, Lisa Lisa, you are joking, right? This is a prank to scare me, right? When I am about to drop, you will bring a ladder."
"Do not walk away. Lisa Lisa - no, Master, Master!"
Her expression as she left said it all. She did not care whether he died here.
"Riku, got any ideas to climb this thing?"
Joseph turned to Shiratori Riku, who was thinking hard.
"Hm. So that is what this is."
Riku was piecing together his mission. The identity placed him with Joseph to gain methods against Kars and to strengthen himself.
The task said to banish Kars after he becomes a being beyond human, not to kill him earlier, likely so fate would run its course.
In other words, without intervention, Joseph here might fail to cast Kars into space.
"What is that supposed to mean? You found a way up?"
Joseph's eyes went wide. Trust a detective to figure it out fast.
"Huh? Oh, I was talking about something else. As for getting out, it is simple. Just walk out."
Riku stepped onto the oiled surface, strolled to the pillar, then walked up it at a right angle to the ground.
His soles clung fast. It looked as if the pillar were carrying him upward.
"See? Easy. Do this and you will be out in no time."
He truly did not see the difficulty. Ripple could adhere, the pillar needed climbing, so adhere with Ripple and climb.
"I know that is how, but how are you standing there? How are you moving?"
"Are you cheating?"
Joseph tried again and slid at once. His Ripple would not grip the slick surface.
"How do I explain something this basic... It is a feel thing. You know, that feel."
Riku scratched his head. He was simply using Ripple to stick to the pillar. Hard to put into words.
By now he had passed Caesar.
"Such speed."
"No. Look at his feet. The instep is perfectly sealed to the pillar. How strong is his Ripple to cover that area?"
Caesar stared, shocked. This guy had learned Ripple today, yet his output already surpassed Caesar's.
Caesar had to focus all his Ripple into his fingertips to cling at all.
Ripple was like a high-pressure hose. The smaller the outlet, the stronger the pressure. Widen it, and you lose force.
"No. That is not it."
"He is not using that much Ripple. He is controlling it with extreme precision and squeezing out maximum effect."
As a Ripple master, Lisa Lisa saw the trick at once.
He was focusing Ripple to a point - but not a fingertip or a toe. A point on the sole.
As he moved, that point slid with him. It demanded absurdly fine control.
"Is this really his first day with Ripple?"
She doubted, then shook her head. Even lifelong training might not reach this.
Perhaps it was talent. An uncanny gift for comprehension, turning any technique into second nature.
Riku reached the top in short order. He stood there without a flushed face or short breath, as if he had taken a casual stroll.
"Lisa Lisa, why must Ripple rely on breath and the bloodstream to reach the limbs?"
"What if I condense it directly? The core is not breath or blood. The core is vibration."
"Why not turn the Ripple Breathing into Ripple Vibration instead?"
He had seen through it. The essence of Ripple was not the breath or the blood, but the special vibration.
Breath only induced that vibration, gathered life energy into the blood, ferried it to the limbs, then released it.
When released and tuned to the sun's rhythm, it became golden Ripple.
He had already proved that by shifting the vibration, he could make it Water-Blue Overdrive.
All of it pointed to one truth: vibration was the key.
If he could master vibration completely, then any part of the body - even a single hair - could unleash Ripple at will.