Thirty minutes had passed since Kenji arrived and began meditating inside the pool.
Yumiko, Ro, and the foxes watched Kenji, who sat cross-legged in the glowing water. His eyes were tightly shut, his face twisted in pain as his body trembled slightly.
"Is he winning?" Ro asked.
Yumiko's expression remained blank."No."
In an instant, Yumiko leaped into the pool, grabbed Kenji by the collar, and jumped back out. Water splashed across the stone floor as she set him down.
Kenji lay unconscious.
Ro turned toward her sharply. "What happened?"
"This child's body is not loved by Hashi," Yumiko said, her gaze distant. She then turned to Ro, sadness flickering across her face. "Unfortunately, this child may never be able to form a core."
Ro stared at her in disbelief. "Oi! What do you mean? That can't be—"He looked down at the unconscious form of his beloved younger brother.
His fist clenched tightly."There is a way, right? We—we can try harder. That has to be it, right?" His voice trembled. "Mom always said effort is never betrayed. That anything you build with blood, sweat, and tears will always reflect that effort. And Kenji—"
Ro's hand dug into his hair, ruining his signature hairstyle as he slumped against the wall.
"…he worked harder than anyone I've ever met, dammit. He wakes up earlier than everyone to train and goes to bed basically the next day."
Ro looked up at Yumiko. Even though this was not his own failure, the weight of the disappointment, heartbreak, and grief he would soon have to deliver pressed down on him.
He would have to tell a child—one who had chased this dream ever since Ro himself had spoken of it—that it was over.
"Tell me, Grandma," Ro said quietly, his voice cracking, "how do I break my little brother's heart?"
The question was unfair, filled with the sorrow of an older brother forced to watch his younger sibling's dreams shatter.
Yumiko fixed her expression and looked away."This world is truly unfair," she said softly. "Not all effort is rewarded, and dreamers must eventually wake."
Ro slammed his fist into the wall.
"It's getting late, child," Yumiko said, still not looking at him. "You have a big day tomorrow."
Ro nodded silently. He lifted Kenji onto his back and left.
Ro ran through the forest at full speed, Kenji secured tightly against him. Tears streamed down his face.
Only now, on his way back, did everything he had seen and heard since returning finally hit him.
Ro wanted to cry. He cursed himself again and again for being an idiot—for not understanding sooner what Kenji had already endured. As his older brother, his role model, he had only made things worse.
He had lifted Kenji's hopes… only to throw them back down.
It was like telling someone without legs to run, or someone without wings to fly. Kenji's core was those legs, those wings. Without it, his dream was impossible to reach.
Ro remembered when Anna told him Kenji had not awakened—and never would. At the time, Ro thought Kenji was just distracted or fooling around.
But now he realized the truth.
He remembered Kenji eating only one bowl of food when he normally ate five before feeling full.
The signs had always been there.
Kenji not wearing Hakama, he wasn't training with the others.
The light in Kenji's eyes was gone, replaced by something dark, distant, and heavy.
Ro couldn't hold it in anymore. The journey home was too long, and being trapped in his own thoughts only made it worse as everything replayed again and again.
His silent tears turned into sobs.
"SORRY, KENJI! I WAS AN IDIOT! DAMMIT! WHY DIDN'T I SEE IT?! I'M SORRY!" Snort started.
"DAMMIT I'M A SHITTY BROTHER!!"
Ro cried as he carried his brother through the forest, moonlight casting shadows that hid his face as he ran.
Kenji, resting on his brother's back, was awake.
He had already guessed why Ro was crying.
No… I'm sorry, Ro. I let you down, Kenji thought, gritting his teeth as his own tears threatened to fall—but he held them back.
Kenji had accepted the truth long ago.
After an entire month of trying.Of collapsing from exhaustion, hunger, and pain.Of crying, sweating, bruising, and even starving himself.
Reality had already struck him hard.
He could not walk the path of the Hashi Arts. Just as Yumiko had said what Kenji said to himself or had done already.
Eventually dreamers had to wake up.