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"Just now... did that little guy really use Soru?!"
"He used a high-level Marine technique to send Major Bogard flying?!"
"He learned it just by watching it once?!"
The Marines on deck were utterly dumbfounded. Jaws dropped to the floor, and eyes bulged like cones as they tried to process the impossible feat they had just witnessed. Once the initial shock faded, the atmosphere turned from disbelief to collective despair. Many of the seasoned soldiers swayed precariously, while others covered their faces and wept openly.
"A twelve-year-old child... he mastered one of the Six Styles by watching a single demonstration," one veteran sobbed. "I'm thirty-five, I've been in the Navy for thirteen years, and I can't even do a proper kick!"
"You've only been in for thirteen years? I've been in for twenty!" another cried. "I'm useless! Mama, I don't want to live anymore!"
Goku, standing perfectly still after his successful counter-attack, looked at the weeping men with a puzzled expression. "Huh? What's wrong with them?" He truly didn't understand why everyone was suddenly so upset.
"Th-this... how is this possible?!" Bogard stood up, rubbing his bright red forehead. There was no mistaking it: Goku had used Soru. But the logic of it defied everything Bogard knew. He was a certified genius who had spent four agonizing months mastering that single move, yet this boy had replicated it in seconds. Is this kid a monster?!
"Hey! Have you learned that before?" Bogard shouted, using Soru to reappear directly in front of Goku.
"Learned what?" Goku asked, still distracted by the crying Marines.
"This! The movement technique!"
"Oh, that? No, I haven't learned it," Goku replied honestly.
"Then how did you just use it?"
Goku tilted his head, looking innocent. "Is it strange? I just learned it after watching you do it once".
Bogard's eye twitched wildly. He felt as if a knife had been driven into his heart. If this child could learn in seconds what took a genius months, then was Bogard even a genius at all? He suppressed the urge to cough up blood and forced his face into a stiff mask.
"Fine. You say you learned it after watching once? Then watch this!" Bogard declared. He had mastered three of the Six Styles, and the next two were far more difficult than Soru. "Watch closely! This is Moonwalk. It took me eight months to master this move!"
Bogard leaped into the air. Just as gravity began to pull him down, he kicked the air with explosive force, defying physics to propel himself upward again. It looked as though he was climbing an invisible staircase.
"It's Moonwalk!" a soldier exclaimed, his eyes full of envy. "Using raw leg strength to stomp the air and stay suspended... it's the dream of every Marine!"
Goku's eyes widened. "He's flying? That's so amazing!" Since he had lost his Flying Nimbus, Goku had been grounded. This "stepping on air" technique was exactly what he needed. He watched Bogard's leg movements intently for a few seconds, then tried to jump, stomping his short legs as hard as he could.
Nothing happened. He fell straight back to the deck.
"Hmph! You can't learn this one, can you!" Bogard landed, crossing his arms with a confident smirk. "You must have seen Soru somewhere else before and practiced it in secret. No one—no matter how talented—can learn these moves just by watching once!"
Goku ignored the lecture and kept trying. He jumped and kicked, falling again and again. On his fourth landing, he stopped, looked at Bogard with a wide grin, and said, "Okay, I've got it now!"
"Little guy, a bit of vanity is normal at your age, but—" Bogard began, shaking his head with a sigh. He started to turn away, feeling it was undignified to keep competing with a child. But as he stepped away, he saw the surrounding Marines look up in unison, their mouths falling open.
"He's flying! He's really flying!"
Bogard spun around. Above him, a slender figure was rising and falling in the sky.
"Yo-ho! I'm flying! This is fun!" Goku shouted, spreading his arms. Every time he began to descend, he gave a sharp stomp against the air, leaping higher as if the atmosphere itself was a trampoline. He even started doing somersaults for the fun of it.
Bogard's expression went completely blank. His pupils were dazed. The world no longer made sense. When Goku finally landed and asked how he did, Bogard didn't say a word. He simply leaped into the air and swept his leg forcefully toward the ocean. A crescent-shaped blue wave of compressed air shot from his foot, tearing a small rift in the sea's surface.
"That is Rankyaku," Bogard said, his voice as hollow as a mummy's. "Can you learn that?"
"Rankyaku? Let me try!"
Thirty seconds later, a massive blue arc of energy—considerably larger than Bogard's—sliced into the ocean, creating a thunderous splash. The light left Bogard's eyes. He stood stiff and silent as the Marines swarmed Goku, praising him as a peerless prodigy.
Staggering away to a quiet, uninhabited corner of the deck, the former genius of the Navy looked up at the sky. Bitter tears flowed down his cheeks. "Wuwuwu... I'm not a genius. I'm just useless!"