In Sumida Ward, next to the subway Oshiage Station, Ye Olivia casually paid for their fare before striding toward a towering skyscraper.
"I really don't know what you plan to do here."
Even from a distance, the sheer size of the structure dominated the entire view ahead. Olivia checked her phone, scrolling through some information, "If you're here for the observation deck, you'd better hurry, the ticket sales are about to close."
There weren't many pedestrians around. Compared to other popular spots on Christmas Eve, this place had far fewer visitors. Olivia swiped her screen twice, sensing something was off.
'Why was it so quiet…'
She turned to look at Logan, but he was already gone.
'Where is he?'
Olivia froze in shock, glancing around in every direction. Apart from a few uniformed staff members, there was no sign of Logan anywhere.
"No way… He was just with me when we got off the train. I even saw him approaching in my peripheral vision..."
Olivia was a little flustered and wandered a few steps, trying to figure out what happened.
'Did he run off?' Olivia's face showed cold displeasure at this act of distrust, and she raised her hand to make a call when a familiar voice came from the side.
"I never planned on going up there for sightseeing anyway."
Olivia turned her head, only to find that Logan was once again standing just a meter away from her without her noticing.
"You..." Olivia panicked for a moment, but an inner voice quickly reminded her, 'Logan was no ordinary high school student. Stay calm. This is still quite scientific... Wait, what part of this is scientific?! Stay composed, don't lose your cool...'
Olivia barely managed to steady her expression.
Looking at Logan's eyes at this moment, Olivia suddenly had a strange feeling, 'He was still the same person, yet… something about him had changed?
…
The memories of his shadow clone flowed seamlessly into Logan's mind.
Snowflakes falling outside the window from morning to night, the disdainful look of David, the neon glow of the plaza, the smooth sensation in his palm.
Logan took a deep breath of the not-so-fresh air. The shadow clone was dispelled, as he was back from the Paulownia Forest.
Large snowflakes drifted onto his nose, cool and refreshing. He exhaled, watching the white mist dissipate.
Glancing at Olivia unaccustomedly, Logan's attention was quickly drawn forward—to the vast, faint glow covering an immense area.
Looking up… and up… and up… Logan took in the tallest structure he had ever seen in his life. He wasn't even standing directly beneath the broadcasting tower, yet when his gaze lifted beyond the ground level, the 634-meter tower still felt impossibly close. The steel-white structure stretched upward in steps, grand and imposing, extending into the sky.
That faint glow emanated from the entire body of the tower, 'So this is the Tokyo Skytree.'
Logan's mouth slightly parted as he stared for a long time.
"Damn… that's really freaking tall."
After adapting to the influx of memories from his shadow clone and recovering from the initial shock, Logan steadied himself. He kept looking at Tokyo Skytree, so calm that his gaze almost became unfocused.
'Did it really have to be this high...'
'The difference between imagination and seeing it with his own eyes was really significant.' Logan could only comfort himself with that thought.
"You're not planning to go up for sightseeing?"
Olivia spoke after composing herself, "And also, how did you disappear and reappear just now?"
Logan glanced at her. In order to facilitate him, the shadow clone simply dispersed itself when he returned with Reverse Summoning Technique. By now, after spending so much time around her, there was no need to hide too much.
"We have some understanding, don't we?" Logan said with a mischievous grin, not even trying to deny it, "Senior, you definitely get it."
"..."
For the first time, Olivia experienced what it felt like to have words stuck in her throat. Somehow, she felt like their roles should be reversed for this conversation to make sense.
"If you're not here for sightseeing, then why are you here?" Olivia held it in for a while, then changed the subject in frustration.
"Don't worry about it." Logan waved her off.
Olivia pursed her lips and did not push further, "Then, like last time, I'll find a place to wait?"
Logan had originally planned to say there was no need for her to wait the whole time, but when he saw the look on her face, he gave up, "Okay... But, Senior, it won't be convenient for you to follow. Sorry about that." Finally, he added seriously, "And… thanks."
"Anyway, you better give me a full explanation when it's over." Olivia sighed, leaving those words behind before turning away.
After walking more than a dozen steps, Logan suddenly remembered something and took out the mask and hat he had borrowed yesterday, "Oh, right, Senior, I still haven't returned these."
Olivia only gave them a glance, lingering slightly on the mask before saying, "You can keep them."
'She really regards money as dirt...' Logan silently glanced at the brand on the baseball cap.
Olivia's silhouette soon disappeared into the subway entrance in the distance, likely looking for a place to rest.
'Well, this'll come in handy later anyway.' Logan thought of what he had to do later and put the mask and hat back on without hesitation.
Raising his head again, Logan's eyes sharpened as he looked at the white tower that seemed to reach the sky.
He really wasn't going inside the tower. He was going to climb it.
Inside his backpack, the drawing tablet lay quietly, emitting faint Space-Time Fluctuations.
Right now, Logan's Chakra Reserve was just barely enough to activate one Space-Time Teleportation. Based on the standard from when his shadow clone was sucked in, he might barely make it. But how long he could stay there was uncertain.
Ever since discovering another possible method, he had set his sights beyond just scraping by.
Tomorrow's arranged marriage, he indeed had a burning desire to stop it, but even if he did, it would cause lasting problems. This wasn't about patience, it was about Sumika's future, so Logan couldn't take it lightly.
He needed a permanent solution.
When he had consulted the Divine Bird Clan's Elder, he was told that using Space-Time Teleportation to transport others had never been done before.
But if one had enough Chakra, it wasn't necessarily impossible.
The biggest obstacle for Logan right now was his Chakra Reserve. There was no way he could gather enough chakra in the real world within a limited timeframe. And his own capacity would never reach the level required to transport another person. Maybe no Ninja in history had ever reached that threshold.
But what if the Chakra didn't come from within… but from an external source?
His strongest attribute is Lightning, and Chakra could be transformed into roaring thunder, so could roaring thunder, in turn, be converted into usable Chakra?
And as fate would have it, he knew a technique that could draw in lightning. One he had seen from that avenger in his past life.
'This weather saves me a lot of trouble.'
Logan looked up at the sky filled with swirling snow and silently stepped past the security perimeter of the broadcasting tower.
This idea was undeniably bold and carried immense risk. But when Logan had presented it to the Elder, he hadn't been met with immediate rejection. And that was reason enough for Logan to seize this opportunity with all his might.
Upon learning that an immense amount of Chakra was needed, Logan had suggested Naruto's method of using shadow clones to store Chakra for Sage Mode. The Elder had considered it but ultimately shook his head. The gap was simply too vast, making the likelihood of success almost zero.
But then… a sliver of possibility had emerged.
Logan had locked eyes with the Elder and seen it, the understanding of someone who grasped his resolve.
This time, he wouldn't run. He wouldn't hesitate.
He wanted to keep seeing Sumika's smile.
So, while his shadow clone remained outside, Logan had gone deep into the Paulownia Forest, searching for a way to harness nature's lightning and transform it into a controlled source of Natural Energy.
Hard work paid off and he had made it in time.
As his foot stepped onto the first steel beam, another snowflake landed coolly on the tip of his nose. Lifting the brim of his black cap, he gazed upward.
The wind and snow swept into the towering structure.
Even the heavens seemed to be on his side.