Jaden was capable of allowing Kaku Kaioh to reclaim the strength of his youth.
Or rather, this wasn't Jaden's own ability. It was the power of the Thirteen Valkyrie Council within him. They possessed the authority to restore Kaku Kaioh's physical condition to that of his prime.
Not only that.
They could allow Kaku Kaioh to grasp that restored power without resistance or incompatibility. It would let him wield the strongest physique of his life together with his current techniques, simultaneously, without contradiction.
That would place Kaku Kaioh in the absolute strongest state of his entire career.
If the opponent were someone like Goki Shibukawa, Jaden wouldn't have said such a thing.
But Kaku Kaioh was different.
In Jaden's eyes, many of Kaku Kaioh's muscles had already atrophied-especially those in his arms and legs. He could still fight through un-stressing and deflection, but the power delivered by un-stressing atrophied muscles was fundamentally different from that delivered by healthy ones.
Muscle size.
Vitality.
Elasticity.
All of it mattered.
Jaden believed that letting Kaku Kaioh regain his youth would only make him stronger. That was why he spoke so directly.
But after hearing those words, Kaku Kaioh's smile slowly faded.
Clang!
A sharp, violent sound echoed.
Kaku Kaioh stared at Jaden for a moment, then his entire body curled upward in midair. The wheelchair beneath him was crushed flat, shattered as if trampled by an elephant.
It was Kaku Kaioh who had done it.
He descended lightly, like a feather, landing directly in front of Jaden. He lifted his head and looked at him again.
"Strong One," Kaku Kaioh said calmly. "I don't know what method you're referring to. But I can tell from your eyes that you're not lying."
"You likely do have a way to let me retain my current techniques while regaining the power of my youth."
"That power... which was once the strongest in Asia. Perhaps even the world."
Jaden understood something at that moment and remained silent.
Around them, however, the spectators began to stir.
So Kaku Kaioh raised his voice.
"But there is one thing you said that is wrong!"
The arena fell quiet again.
Kaku Kaioh looked at Jaden, then slowly spread his hands. A smile returned to his face.
"Strong One, the state I am in right now is my strongest state."
"Extra strength. Extra stamina. Extra resistance to blows."
"All of that is unnecessary to me now."
"They are useless things I discarded on my path forward."
"Martial arts that cannot be used by the elderly or by children are not worthy of being called true martial arts."
"Aiki was originally created so that the weak could defeat the strong."
His smile widened to its limit.
"The current me is frail."
"It is weak."
"And it is the strongest."
Jaden smiled in response.
"I see... then it seems I was being presumptuous."
"So we can start now, right?"
"Heh heh," Kaku Kaioh chuckled. "Martial arts isn't a sport bound by rules. There's no fixed moment to begin."
"If you want to strike, you may strike at any time-"
Bang!
Before he finished speaking, Jaden's fist smashed into his face.
Kaku Kaioh's glasses slid onto Jaden's wrist. His body flipped through the air five or six times, as if the impact had completely stolen control from him, before he landed and regained his stance.
However-
Despite how heavy the blow looked, Kaku Kaioh was completely unharmed.
"Deflection," Jaden said quietly. "And deflection at an extremely high level."
Jaden possessed both of Kaku Kaioh's techniques: un-stressing and deflection.
But because he only had those two techniques-and because his physique differed from Kaku Kaioh's-his deflection was fundamentally different.
He had imagined how Kaku Kaioh would use it.
But imagination and reality were not the same.
Kaku Kaioh's deflection wasn't just deflection. It incorporated other martial arts principles. It even contained something similar to the Niko Style's Flowing Form.
Otherwise, even the restrained power behind Jaden's casual punch wouldn't have been fully dispersed.
And failing to fully disperse the force was fatal.
For Jaden, even taking fifty percent of Zeus's power meant nothing. His Iron Body and Armament Haki would handle it easily.
But for Kaku Kaioh-
Even one-tenth of one percent of Jaden's power would cause serious injury.
That was why his deflection had reached such a level.
"Heh heh," Kaku Kaioh said. "You noticed."
"With my current body, even holding chopsticks feels heavy."
"So if I can't completely control incoming force, even a trace slipping into my body would be dangerous."
As he spoke, his expression grew more serious.
Through that single exchange, he had felt it clearly.
The young man before him was terrifyingly strong.
That casual punch had carried more force than Kaku Kaioh's strongest punch in his youth.
If someone had told him before today that brute force alone could threaten his deflection, he would never have believed it.
But now-
He was beginning to.
With that level of power, a full-force strike might be impossible for him to fully disperse.
So-
Kaku Kaioh walked toward Jaden with the pace of an old man on a stroll. He slowly raised his fist.
"Strong One," he said lightly. "You wouldn't be afraid to take a punch from a frail old man like me, would you~"
He stepped closer.
His fist moved.
Slowly.
At a speed any ordinary person could avoid.
-It landed.
At that moment, Kaku Kaioh realized-
Nothing happened.
His eyes widened.
How could this be?
That punch should have shattered a concrete wall.
Yet Jaden hadn't moved at all.
Shock surged, then the feedback from the contact gave him an answer.
He looked up at Jaden in disbelief.
"It's deflection... but deflection at an extremely low level..."
"But-"
"You used this imperfection. This looseness. And then layered another technique on top of it."
"You turned incomplete defense into complete defense!"
That was exactly it.
Jaden had used deflection to disperse roughly half the force. Then, within that un-stressed state, he explosively activated his unknown Hardening Technique to absorb the remainder.
If Jaden truly wanted to, Kaku Kaioh couldn't hurt him even without technique.
But-
He wasn't here to do that.
He was here to help the old man gather influence.
That was why he had crushed Yujiro Hanma with absolute power.
But against Kaku Kaioh-
"Kaioh," Jaden said quietly, looking down at him. "You didn't think I came here to crush your technique with brute force, did you?"
"If I win like that, can it still be called a victory?"
"I intend to defeat your technique with technique."
His mouth curved into a smile, but his eyes were serious.
"So get a little more serious."
"You stinking old man with over a hundred years of martial arts experience."