Dawn crawled over the mountains in pale like gold.
Raen stood on the stone again, barefoot, steady breathe, palms loose at his sides. The air was colder than yesterday, as if the mountain itself waited for him to falter.
But he didn't
He closed his eyes and let the world breathe around him
the rustle of pine branches,the far ripple of a stream, the beat of wings from a hawk circling the cliffs.
Noise
He inhaled
Not yet
Kaien watched him from the cave mouth, arms folded behind his back. The old man's eyes followed every twitch in Raen's shoulders, every shift in his stance.
"Begin," Kaien said
Raen exhaled
The world softened
Not fully, now like before the pool shattered, but enough that the wind bowed slightly, as though reluctant to disturb him.
"kyu"
Raen held the stillness for several breaths before the flicker of thought cracked through
"Am I doing it right?"
and the world rushed back in.
The wind struck him like a slap
Raen winced, "Again."
Kaien chuckled "Determination is useful, but stubbornness is not the same as clarity."
Raen straightened, "I'll learn. Even if it takes my whole life."
"It won't," Kaien said quietly, "The world won't give you that long."
Raen hesitated, "Because of the Flow Order?"
"Not just them."
Kaien tapped the stone with his staff. "The moment a new force stirs, the world shifts to meet it. You are not merely learning Mushin, Raen..... you are announcing your presence to the forces that prefer shadows remain quiet."
Raen frowned, "Something's coming?"
Kaien didn't answer.
He just looked at the horizon, where the mist parted strangely, as if something moved beneath it.
By midday, Raen and Kaien were deep among the pine groves, moving in silence. This was part of the training too, walking without leaving weight behind.
"Do not erase yourself," Kaien said, "Let the world forget you on its own."
Raen nodded, focusing on the feeling of stepping through the world rather than against it.
Step
Step
Step.....
A sharp quake ran through the ground
Raen halted, "What was that?"
Kaien's expression darkened "Not an earthquake."
The forest exhaled a cold breath.
A ripple of chakra swept through the trees- fast, violent, searching.
Raen staggered back, "It feels like pressure"
"Yes" Kaien gripped his staff "A Sensor. Someone is sweeping the forest for traces of movement."
Raen's heartbeat increased , "Flow Order?"
Kaien didn't answer at first
Then....
"No. Worse"
Before Raen could speak, Kaien placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Empty"
"What?"
"Now, Raen. Empty"
The second pulse swept toward them, faster, sharper.
Raen's chest tightened. His thoughts spun. His breath faltered.
"Kaien..... I can't....."
"You can" Kaien's voice was firm. "Still the self, and the world will still with you."
The pulse hit the grove.
Chakra washed over the pines like a tidal wave but when it reached Raen, it bent, hesitated, and slid past him, as if he were nothing but empty air.
Raen gasped
He vanished from the world's sense, not by fleeing, but by ceasing to resonate.
Kaien's eyes shone with quiet pride "Good."
Raen whispered, "Who is searching for us?"
As if answering, a distant voice echoed through the trees, a low hum that felt more felt than heard.
A woman's voice, Cold, Controlled.
"Chakra fluctuation detected. Searching range."
Raen shivered "Who is she?"
Kaien's jaw tightened.
"She is a hunter of flow order. They call her Shirobane, the empress. She tracks disturbances in chakra, those who warp, break, or poison the Flow."
Raen's throat dried "like me."
"like us," Kaien corrected. "I was once marked the same way."
"But were you not the part of flow order?" , Raen asked innocently.
"I....was"
The pulse hit the forest for a third time, this one stronger, sharper, slicing through the air like a blade.
Kaien's eyes widened, "She's close"
Raen steadied his breath, trying to empty again, but fear clawed up his spine.
"Kaien… what do we do?"
"We run," Kaien said "Quietly and not as two men…"
He touched Raen's chest gently.
"…but as two shadows."
They moved
Not fast, not visibly but in a way Raen had never felt before.
Kaien slipped through the trees, leaving no trace, no sound not even a bend in the grass. Raen followed, imitating the rhythm.
"Step through
Not on the ground, through it.
Not against the world, with it.
This is Shadow Drunken Step, the one you will eventually learn" , kaien explained as he was moving carrying Raen.
Below them, another chakra pulse cracked deep into the soil, birds burst from the trees in panicked flocks.
"Kaien," Raen whispered, "she's pushing harder."
"Yes" Kaien's voice was urgent now. "Because she's sensed something impossible."
Another voice echoed through the grove, closer this time
"There is no motion,no residue, no pulse."
"But something is here."
Raen froze "She knows."
"She suspects," Kaien corrected. "There is a difference. If she knew, the forest would already be burning."
They descended into a narrow ravine, rocks slick with rainwater.
Raen's foot slipped.
Just a bit
A small splash against the water.
Kaien's head snapped around too late.
The splash echoed once
And the forest went silent
Utterly silent
Then.....
"There"
The voice sharpened like a blade drawn across stone.
Raen's chest locked, "She heard that..... just that?"
"Hunters hear what the world hears for them," Kaien said grimly,"And the world just pointed at us."
He placed a hand on Raen's back.
"empty, fully, now."
Raen tried.....tried so hard....but panic flooded his thoughts.
Kaien closed his eyes and whispered:
"Raen… don't force the silence, let it choose you."
Shirobane's footsteps cracked branches above them- slow, deliberate, certain.
She was hunting
Raen's heartbeat thundered in his ears
She was getting closer
Closer
Kaien gripped his staff, readying himself. "If she sees us, I will hold her off. You run east"
"No," Raen breathed, "I won't leave you."
"You must"
"I won't"
The footsteps halted above them
A shadow fell across the rocks
Raen's breath caught
Kaien whispered, almost mournfully, "Raen….."
And then
Raen's mind went blank, not because he emptied it, but because something inside him opened.
A deep, cold space, like time stopped.
A perfect, soundless dark.
The world froze
The wind halted
Even Shirobane's chakra pulse fractured in mid-air, breaking like glass.
Kaien stared in horror and awe.
"Raen… no… not that"