Liun sat on his room on the tatami mat he had brought,

  his knees pressing into the woven straw as he stared at nothing. The air in his room was still—too still. No wind, no birdsong from outside.

  His mother's picture sat in front of him.

  He sighed, he had come to Japan for training, that was the deal, he was supposed to train here and understand more about the world, further his emotional and situational awareness, and maybe even get stronger.

  But so far he hadn't done any of that, it had merely been three days so far so he knew he was being a bit hasty, but he simply couldn't wait.

  His blue eyes stared at the photo of his mother with some regret, "I must find some way to address my weakness." The boy said looking at his palms.

  He had been defeated in one strike, yes it was a phase 2 and defeat was excusable in fact it was expected, but... If he couldn't defeat a phase 2, how was he to ever achieve his goal.

  In his mind, he kept replaying that fraction of a second when the Phase 2 Sin moved- or rather, when he failed to see it move.

  And then he heard a knock on his door

  He stood up, the tatami creaking slightly under his weight. He smoothed out his qipao, and composed himself himself,

  Standing in the hallway was Ash.

  Ash stood in the hallway, a hint of a smile playing around his lips as he regarded Liun. He seemed casual, hands in pockets, yet his easy stance didn't quite mask the alertness in his dark eyes. "You look like you've got a lot on your mind," he said, leaning against the doorframe. "Everything good?"

  "Yes, I am quite alright." The Chinese boy said, nodding his head. "I was simply reminiscing is all." The younger boy said.

  "Okay" ash said, standing there for a moment having forgotten what he wanted to say.

  It took him a second before he eventually remembered and pulled a device that looked suspiciously like a wrist watch out of his pocket. "Since you're a sin hunter, you always need some way to contact headquarters, and since you don't have a phone, you get this. It's a communicator"

  "Oh, thank you. I will make accurate use of it" the younger boy said, before looking back at his division conductor, wanting to ask him something. "Sir.. will you.. spar with me?" The boy asked which came as a surprise to the older man. "I overheard you're conversation with Miss Rissa, and from what I heard you are very strong."

  Ash wasn't exactly against sparring with the boy, just a little bit thrown off. "Sure. Follow along."

  ---

  The two entered a large white padded room in the HAS building.

  "Here we are, this is the training room. It used to be my favorite place in the building." Ash said, looking around the place.

  "It seems incredibly big.

  Liun’s voice echoed faintly off the padded walls, his eyes tracing the seams in the white panels. The room felt sterile, empty, like a blank page in a book.

  Ash gave a small chuckle. "Big enough that we won’t break anything important. Hopefully."

  Liun nodded, stepping further inside. The air here was significantly cooler than outside.

  Liun stood near the center of the padded room, hands folded behind his back, posture straight and composed. The silence here in the room was deafening.

  Ash rolled his shoulders once, then twice, loosening up. “Alright,” he said casually, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Let’s keep it light.”

  Liun bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment, then raised his hands. His stance was balanced, grounded, feet angled just enough to move in any direction without wasted motion.

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  Ash’s stance, by contrast, looked almost lazy, hands loose, guard half-raised, weight relaxed. But Liun could tell not to underestimate him, he'd always been taught to never underestimate an opponent no matter what.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Ash said.

  Liun didn’t answer. He moved.

  He closed the distance in a blur of soft footwork, his lead foot gliding across the mat as his rear followed, body upright, center steady. His hand flicked out toward Ash’s face, not in an attempt to actually land a blow, but instead to test the waters

  Ash leaned back just enough that it missed him, his eyebrows lifted. “you're faster than I thought.”

  Liun followed immediately with a low sweeping strike toward Ash’s ribs.

  Ash shifted his hips, absorbing the motion by rolling his torso, the strike brushing past his side. He didn't waste any time in initiating a counter, throwing a short compact jab into the boys side.

  Liun twisted, letting it graze cloth instead of flesh, then pivoted on his heel, turning the motion into a spinning elbow.

  Ash ducked under it, stepping inside Liun’s range. “Whoa there,” he said lightly, as if this were a friendly game of tag.

  "This exo suit is more impressive than I had initially assumed. If I had not been wearing it, that blow would've destroyed my ribs" the boy said, still searching for weak points.

  "Yeah, cool right? I don't know how it works, but apparently it lets the human body not plateau through training, as long as you have it on you can eventually climb up to a similar strength as a phase 2" the older man explained, before the white haired planted his foot and sent a palm strike towards him.

  Ash blocked with his forearm, redirecting the force outward, then tapped Liun’s sternum with two quick knuckles. Not hard, just enough to make the point.

  “thats not nice, I was explaining,” Ash said.

  Liun stepped back, expression unreadable, he had left himself open, that was his mistake.

  This time, he advanced more carefully.

  He circled, feet barely lifting from the mat, his body swaying with small, shifts. His hands moved in flowing arcs, not guarding so much as guiding space. Ash mirrored him loosely, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

  Liun feinted left, then lunged right, driving forward with a sharp, straight thrust.

  Ash slid sideways, letting the strike pass through empty air, and flicked a jab toward Liun’s face.

  "You're pretty good, where'd you learn to fight?" Ash asked

  Liun tilted his head, letting the knuckles pass a breath away, "my mother trained me, she thought me everything I know" the boy said before stepping inside, trapping as's arm.

  For a split second, Ash let it happen.

  Then he rolled his shoulder, slipping his arm free, and drove a short hook toward Liun’s side.

  Liun absorbed the impact by blocking it with his weapons, the pair of metal gloves that could shift their density, the blow was still strong enough to make his whole body vibrate. He responded to that attack with a rising knee

  Ash backed off just in time, the knee passing right against where his ribs would have been.

  “Not bad,” Ash said, a grin creeping onto his face.

  Liun did not smile. He pressed forward.

  he threw out several different strikes, each of which were made faster by the gloves he wore, which became less dense to allow him to strike faster.

  Ash responded by… not really responding.

  He dodged, weaved, leaned, slipped. Sometimes he blocked. Sometimes he just let attacks miss by fractions of inches. Occasionally, he tapped Liun with light counters, knuckles to the shoulder, a gentle body shot, a quick flick to the ribs, but nothing too dangerous.

  " Where did you learn to fight" the boy asked his conductor, he felt like he'd seen this fighting style before.

  "I was trained by my previous division conductor. He was pretty rough on me but he gave me a pretty good grasp of the basics, he taught me boxing." Ash said.

  Liun, was throwing more and more intense strikes, faster, heavier, he wasn't screwing around, he was doing his best to at least push the man standing in front of him.

  And ash responded by finally raising his guard.

  “Okay,” Ash said, tone still light, but eyes sharpening. “Let’s see.”

  Liun sent a flurry of strikes towards the young man. two rapid palm strikes followed by a low kick and a sweeping arm motion aimed at Ash’s neck.

  Ash blocked the first palm, parried the second, checked the kick with his shin, and ducked under the sweep. He pulled inside liun's range, sending a strong but restrained straight punch to the boys abdomen.

  The air left Liun’s lungs in a sharp burst.

  He staggered back half a step, eyes widening.

  Ash didn’t follow up. He just stood there, hands up, waiting.

  Liun inhaled sharply, steadying himself. He nodded once, that strength, it was surpassing anything he'd been hit with before. But that made sense, given what he knew ash to be capable of.

  He moved in again, more cautiously this time. He feinted high, then struck down low.

  Ash read it instantly, stepping back just enough to avoid the strike and tapping Liun’s wrist with a short jab.

  “Tell,” Ash said casually.

  Liun frowned slightly.

  They circled again.

  Liun dashed forward, aiming not for Ash’s head or torso this time, but for his feet.

  He threw a leg sweep.

  Ash’s eyes widened just a fraction.

  He hopped back, barely clearing it, the edge of Liun’s foot brushing his heel.

  He hadn't expected the boy to get so much faster, it seemed like he was putting most of his weight into this.

  “Okay,” Ash said, exhaling. “That was pretty impressive.”

  Liun didn’t slow. He chained the motion into a forward step, his palm snapping out toward Ash’s chest, then flowing into a backhand strike aimed at the jaw.

  Ash blocked the palm, but the backhand grazed his cheek.

  It wasn’t hard.

  But it landed.

  Ash’s head turned slightly from impact.

  The room went still for half a heartbeat.

  Ash touched his cheek with his thumb, then looked back at Liun- not surprised, but… impressed.

  “Huh,” he said. “So you can hit me.”

  Liun didn’t respond. He pressed forward again, throwing a flurry of blows to end the fight.

  This time, ash slipped a punch past Liun’s guard and placing a firm, controlled strike against his shoulder.

  "You keep letting that happen"

  Liun absorbed it, sliding back half a step, but didn’t break stance.

  They stood there, facing each other, both breathing a little heavier now.

  Ash lowered his hands.

  “That’s enough,” he said. “ive seen all I need to see.”

  Liun slowly lowered his arms as well, chest rising and falling.

  “…I failed,” Liun said quietly.

  Ash tilted his head. “Nah, you did pretty good. Im genuinely impressed.”

  Liun looked up.

  “You noticed something,” Ash continued. “You stopped attacking where I was and started attacking where I was going. That’s the difference between technique and awareness.”

  Liun’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Yet I still could not see you move when you struck me.”

  Ash nodded. “Because you’re looking at the strike instead of the body.”

  He stepped closer and tapped Liun lightly on the shoulder.

  “Every attack starts here. Weight shift. Muscle tension. Breath. If you train your eyes to catch those, speed matters a lot less.”

  Liun looked down at his hands " I know that, I've been trained in those ways before.”

  "Exactly, you've been trained in those ways, but you've never fought in those ways.”

  There was a brief silence.

  "Wh-what?"

  "You see you're problem isn't power or speed or technique or any of that. It's experience. Training and sparring is not the same as being in a fight, sure you get the techniques and forms and all that stuff down, but in a fight you have to actually know when and how to use those skills."

  Then Ash smiled faintly. “Which is way easier to fix.”

  Liun looked up again. “…Will you fight me?"

  Ash smirked and let off a smile, "of course I will, I'm your conductor after all, helping you guys is what I do" he said.