Morning came softly.
The mist thinned, the valley stretching below like an ocean made of clouds.
Raen stood barefoot on the flat stone outside the cave, the cold biting at his feet.
Kaien circled him slowly, tapping the ground with his staff.
"Today," the old man said, "we begin Kyu- the first chapter of Mushin."
Raen nodded, spine straightening.
"What do I do?"
Kaien smiled, "You do nothing."
Raen blinked, "…Nothing?"
"Mushin begins not with action, but with emptiness"
Kaien planted his staff in the ground.
"Stillness is your nature. Yet your heart still rushes, your breath still chases the world.
Today, you learn the First Step- Empty self, and the world will empty with you."
He placed a smooth river stone into Raen's palm.
"Hold this," Kaien said, "and simply… exist."
Raen closed his fingers around the stone.
Seconds passed.
Wind brushed his cheek.
A bird cried in the distance.
The mountain's breath hummed faintly underfoot.
His hand trembled.
Kaien's voice cut through gently, "You are listening to the world.
Stop.
Let the world listen to you."
Raen drew in a slow breath.
He tried clearing his thoughts but it kept flooding in anyway.
Why can't I just.....
He stopped
Thought again
Stopped
Again
Frustration crawled up.
"Master, I....."
"Thought," Kaien said calmly.
"Again."
Raen gritted his teeth.
But then…
He remembered the river.
The way he used to stare at the water, waiting for it to ripple back at him.
It never did.
The river never rushed for him.
So why was he rushing for it?
Raen let the breath slip out of him.
This time, he didn't think about stillness.
He simply..… allowed it.
And the world paused with him.
The wind weakened.
Sound thinned.
The clouds drifted slower, as if forgetting how to move.
Kaien's eyes gleamed.
"Kyu"
Raen's fingers loosened.
The stone rested perfectly still, as though glued to the air itself.
"…Did I do it?" Raen whispered.
Kaien laughed softly.
"You touched it. The edge, nothing more. Mushin is a mountain, boy. You've stepped on the first stone."
Raen smiled
"Again," Kaien said.
They practiced until sunset, shadow bending inside the cave.
Each time Raen emptied himself, the world softened, just for a heartbeat.
Kaien corrected him gently
"Don't force the silence."
"Don't fear the rush of thoughts."
"Let the stillness come to you."
But with every attempt, Raen felt the difference.
For the first time in his life, he wasn't resisting what he was.
He was learning to use it.
Night settled over the mountains.
Raen sat by the fire, rubbing the stone between his palms.
He didn't extinguish the flame this time.
He didn't want to.
Kaien watched him quietly.
"There is something else you must understand," he said.
Raen looked up. "What is it?"
"The Flow Order will come looking for me soon.
If they find me, they will find you."
Raen stiffened. "I'm not ready to fight them."
"You don't need to fight them."
Kaien tapped Raen's chest.
"You need to hide, go to the eastern continent, they never discriminate on chakra. You can be open and free there"
Raen swallowed. "Disappear again… like before?"
"Eventually," Kaien said, "But not today."
He leaned back, eyes reflecting the firelight.
"Your existence bends the world.
Some will fear it.
Some will try to use it.
Some will want to destroy it."
Raen tightened his grip on the stone.
"But I'm tired of being afraid," he whispered, "If I keep running, nothing will change."
Kaien smiled.
"That," he said, "is why you can walk this path."
The fire crackled softly.
Raen stared into the flame, not with fear this time, but with determination.
Tomorrow, he would begin again
Tomorrow, he would step deeper into Mushin
Tomorrow, he would learn how to move without being felt, without being seen, without being there
Tonight, though….
Tonight he allowed himself a simple truth
The boy who once begged to be normal….
was learning to become something entirely his own.
And somewhere far below the mountains, in the deep halls of the Flow Order, a crystal flickered.
a pulse
a disturbance
a whisper
"He has awakened."
The world was beginning to notice him.
The silence had started to move.