Another week passed.
Ash's training achieved yet another major breakthrough—and it wasn't just him. Every one of his Pokémon had made tremendous progress as well.
It could truly be described in four words:
Good news came one after another.
(1) The First Piece of Great News
The first major breakthrough was that Ash had now completely mastered both Jujutsu and Laijutsu, the two close-combat martial arts he had been training.
Thanks to having Blaziken—a Fighting-type Pokémon with Champion-level strength—as his sparring partner, Ash had no intention of wasting any of its remaining value after learning everything he could about Aura Sphere.
What he saw as Blaziken's remaining value...
Was becoming his combat instructor.
A practice target.
A sparring partner.
Someone to exchange moves with in real battles.
Although Ash's original reason for practicing Jujutsu was simply to improve his own personal combat ability so that he could fight humans if necessary...
This was, after all, a supernatural world where Trainers commanded Pokémon.
If the day ever came when Ash himself had to step onto the battlefield...
His enemies would never consist solely of opposing Trainers.
He would also have to face their Pokémon.
Because of that...
Practicing real combat against Pokémon, and learning how to apply Jujutsu and Laijutsu in actual battles, was absolutely essential.
With a Champion-level Blaziken serving as his training partner...
It took Ash less than two weeks to completely master both martial arts.
His proficiency had already recovered to a level comparable to what had taken him two or three years of hard practice in his previous life.
More importantly...
He could now apply every technique naturally and instinctively in real combat.
…
After fully mastering Jujutsu...
The very first thing Ash did was attempt to fuse both Jujutsu and Laijutsu with his Aura Power.
Strictly speaking...
Calling it an "attempt" wasn't quite accurate.
Because the fusion itself presented virtually no difficulty.
Jujutsu and Laijutsu were merely martial techniques.
Combat methods.
Movement patterns.
Attack forms.
Unless he were trying to combine two entirely different martial arts whose movements, stances, or methods of generating force conflicted with each other...
There was nothing difficult about merging them.
In reality...
Combining them with Aura Power was no different from installing electrical wiring first...
Then simply turning on the power afterward.
Aura Power functioned as the internal energy.
Jujutsu and Laijutsu were merely the martial techniques.
In the relationship between martial arts and internal cultivation...
The techniques always adapted themselves to the internal art—
Never the other way around.
And a proper internal cultivation method naturally possessed the compatibility needed to support nearly every style of martial technique.
The same Jujutsu and Laijutsu...
Powered by one internal art...
Would display entirely different characteristics when powered by another.
So...
What characteristics did Aura Power possess?
Although Aura was broadly classified as a Fighting-type power...
It wasn't actually physical strength born from tempering the body.
Aura was, fundamentally...
The power of the heart.
A manifestation of one's spirit.
By nature...
It possessed the ability to directly affect an opponent's mind, willpower, emotions, and even soul.
It also possessed the remarkable ability to blur the boundary between the tangible and the intangible.
Jujutsu itself was an extremely direct martial art devoted entirely to offense.
Jujutsu represented the embodiment of hard styles.
Now...
With Aura infused into every movement...
Each strike no longer damaged only an opponent's body.
It also struck directly at their spirit and mind.
In a sense...
It had achieved a perfect fusion of hardness and softness.
It was the perfect combination of physical force and spiritual energy.
No matter how one looked at it...
After mastering Jujutsu and Laijutsu...
Ash immediately merged them with Aura Power.
And the fusion was astonishingly successful.
With Aura serving as internal energy...
The destructive power of both martial arts increased by more than tenfold.
Previously...
His punches were only strong enough to build fitness and defeat a handful of ordinary street thugs.
If he had punched a tree trunk...
He probably wouldn't even have broken the bark.
Instead, his fist would have split open and started bleeding.
If he had struck a large rock...
The likely result would have been fractured finger bones and serious injury to his own hand.
But now...
After combining Jujutsu with Aura Power...
Everything had changed.
A tree trunk as thick as a person's thigh...
Ash could shatter with a single punch.
Even a boulder the size of a washbasin...
Could be blasted apart into countless fragments.
Furthermore...
Aura naturally formed a protective layer around his fists whenever he performed Jujutsu.
This invisible Aura coating greatly reduced the recoil from striking opponents or solid objects.
…
Of course...
Ash had already practiced Jujutsu and Laijutsu in his previous life.
Combined with the exceptional physical foundation of this body...
And all the preparation he had made beforehand...
Both mastering Jujutsu...
And merging it with Aura Power...
Had always been part of his plan.
Finishing both objectives in less than two weeks was certainly faster than expected...
But it was still well within reason.
It wasn't the truly astonishing piece of good news.
The real breakthrough...
Came afterward.
Once Jujutsu had successfully merged with Aura Power—the native supernatural energy of the Pokémon world—
The system actually reacted.
It recognized Aura Jujutsu and Aura Laijutsu as entirely new skills...
And officially recorded them on Ash's system interface.
Even more incredible...
The system's Move Proficiency feature also recognized both techniques.
That meant every time Ash trained Aura Jujutsu or Aura Laijutsu...
He would receive guaranteed proficiency gains...
Just like his Pokémon did when practicing their own moves.
"System... display my personal status panel."
Ash silently called out in his mind.
"Ascension Trainer System"(Severely Damaged)
Host: Ash Ketchum
Gender: Male
Age: 6
Strength: 15 (Average adult: 10)
Stamina: 14 (Average adult: 10)
Intelligence: 20 (Average adult: 10)
Charm: 29 (Average adult: 10)
Talents:
Viridian Power Lv.66
Aura Power Lv.44
Skills:
Grandmaster(1/10000):
—
Mastered(1/5000):
Aura Sphere
Proficient(1/1000):
—