ryo spoke suddenly, his voice rising high enough to break the silence of the medical room:
"As long as I'm paying… I want to eat, you idiots!"
There was a second of silence, then Freina burst into laughter. It was a loud, clear laugh that escaped her without any real attempt to control it. She tilted her head back slightly, then placed her hand over her mouth, trying in vain to stifle the chuckling.
"Alright… alright, boy!" she said through her laughter. "Don't shout like that, you're killing me with laughter!"
ryo gave her a cold look, mixed with exhaustion, but he didn't comment.
Freina rose from the chair and headed toward the door, a wide grin still etched on her face.
"Wait here, you insolent patient."
She left the room and returned only minutes later, carrying a large plate filled with fresh fruits: green apples, grapes, slices of yellow fruit, and some red berries. She placed the plate in front of ryo with a triumphant smile.
ryo looked at the plate, then slowly raised his eyes toward her.
"…Do you think I'm a monkey?"
Freina froze for a split second before bursting into laughter again, even more intensely than before. She leaned forward slightly, clutching her stomach.
"Hah! Do you have extra tenn to pay for the complaining, you dummy?"
ryo narrowed his eyes, then turned his face away from her slightly.
"None of your business."
He reached for the plate, took an apple, and began eating it indifferently, as if the fruit were an insult he was forced to accept temporarily. The sharp crunching sound echoed in the quiet room.
Yet Freina didn't stop laughing. A short chuckle… then another.
ryo jerked his head up sharply.
"Get out of the room, you old hag!"
Freina's eyes widened, and her laughter stopped abruptly. She straightened her posture, and her voice became sharp and serious.
"Who is the old hag here?!" she snapped, then continued with even greater intensity, "And are you ordering me to leave the room, you brat!?"
A faint, wicked smile appeared on ryo's face, barely visible.
"Yes. You have to do what I say if you want to take the tenn coins. Or…" He paused for a moment, then added maliciously, "Do you intend to treat us for free?"
Freina looked at him for several seconds, then sighed, a meaningful side-smile playing on her lips.
"If you think bribery will work on me…" she said as she turned toward the door, "then you are right."
She left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
ryo was left alone.
He finished the remaining fruit slowly, without haste. Then he set the plate aside and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling for moments before raising his hand in front of his face. He looked at his palm: the small scars, the traces of battle, the fatigue accumulated in the bones.
He clenched his fist tightly, until his arm muscles trembled slightly.
"I haven't reached Ogun's level yet, despite all this trouble and training…."
Then ryo punched the wall with his hand.
His voice was low, but sharp, filled with determination.
"I must hone my skills further…"
He stopped for a moment, then added in a less sharp but deeper tone:
"And of course… hone that idiot boy."
ryo closed his eyes slowly.
His breathing became deeper, calmer.
Inside, he began to imagine his soul…
Not as a body of flesh and blood,
But as a pure extension of the wind.
A wind that never stops.
A wind that never breaks.
He could no longer hear anything but his regular, deep breathing. The hospital sounds—distant footsteps, the whispering of doctors, the humming of devices—began to fade gradually, as if being pulled from his consciousness thread by thread.
"Imagine…" he said to himself in a calm, internal voice.
He didn't imagine his body first.
He imagined the wind.
A wind with no shape, no weight, no center. It moves without hesitation, yet it is not chaotic. It knows where to pass, where to stop, and when to surge.
He imagined himself standing in the heart of it, then… no,
He imagined that he was no longer standing.
He was the wind itself.
His breath became a rhythm.
Inhale… extension.
Exhale… balance.
He tried to feel every part of his body without clinging to it. The pain in his shoulders, the light stinging in his legs, the deep exhaustion in his bones—he didn't resist them, nor did he cast them out. He let them pass, as the wind passes between rocks.
"If you resist… you break."
A clear, fixed thought.
"And if you surge without balance… you scatter."
He imagined his aura—not dense, nor violent, but delicate and regular, swirling around him like a transparent layer of air. Every heartbeat changed its direction slightly, and every exhale made it clearer.
In his imagination, an imaginary opponent stood before him.
ryo didn't move toward him.
He let the wind move for him.
A light twist…
A slight deviation…
A single unseen step, yet perfectly in the right place.
"Strength is not just in speed…" he thought calmly. "But in reaching… without losing your control."
He felt as if his body were lighter, as if the bed beneath him no longer existed. This was not muscle training; it was training of presence. Awareness. Balance.
A balance between rage and reason.
Between impulse and control.
Between the desire to fight… and knowing when not to.
Minutes passed, or perhaps hours—he was no longer sure.
When he finally opened his eyes, his chest was rising calmly, and his gaze was clearer than before.
"Good… but I am still far..."
He said it in a low voice…
But the wind was not just outside him.
It was inside him now.
To be continued...