The morning air was cold, mist coiling through the cracked alleys like breath from the city's dying lungs. Kazahiro followed Goro through backstreets he'd never seen before — not the usual route to the warehouse, not the usual day.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"You said you wanted to learn everything," Goro muttered. "Then it's time you met the man who taught me what Jeet Kune Do really is."
Kazahiro arched a brow. "I thought that was you."
Goro gave him a look. "No. I'm a survivor. He's something else."
They stopped in front of a rusted metal gate hidden behind a mechanic shop. Goro tapped a silent rhythm against the door. A few seconds passed. Then it creaked open.
The air inside was different — warmer, heavier. Like a storm waiting to break.
The man who stood there was thin, old, and calm. His eyes didn't just look at Kazahiro — they read him. Everything in Kazahiro's body screamed to stand tall, to clench his fists, to show he wasn't weak.
But the old man smiled faintly, and somehow, Kazahiro felt... smaller.
"Master Tenzan," Goro said with quiet reverence. "This is the boy."
Tenzan looked at him. "The storm?"
Goro nodded. "But still wild. Still burning himself."
Kazahiro frowned. "I'm not some—"
Tenzan held up a hand. "Do not speak. Not yet. You've trained the body, not the mind. You've learned to react, not perceive. Until now, you've been fighting the world. I will teach you to fight yourself."
Kazahiro stared at him. "That sounds—"
"Soft?" Tenzan interrupted. "Then hit me."
Kazahiro blinked. "What?"
"Attack me. Now."
Goro stepped back, folding his arms.
Kazahiro shrugged, stepped in, and struck with speed — a clean jab followed by a hook.
Tenzan didn't move. He shifted — so slightly Kazahiro barely registered it — and Kazahiro's fist passed through nothing.
Then Tenzan's palm was at Kazahiro's chest.
Tap.
And Kazahiro was on the floor.
Not from a blow. Not from pain.
But from confusion.
He hadn't seen it.
He hadn't understood it.
Tenzan offered a hand. "Fighting is not about destruction. It is about understanding motion. About being formless — like water."
Kazahiro took his hand slowly. "Then teach me how to drown them."
Tenzan's smile faded. "No. I will teach you how to flow."
That evening, after the lesson, Kazahiro sat on the rooftop of the dojo. Goro joined him, handing over an old folder marked only with a crimson symbol — a burning blade.
"What's this?" Kazahiro asked.
Goro looked out over the skyline. "A list of companies in the Kagutsuchi Circuit."
Kazahiro's heart beat faster.
"I'm not giving it to you now," Goro said. "But when the time comes… you'll be ready."
Kazahiro watched the symbol on the folder flicker in the light.
A fire that didn't burn — but waited.