I stood in the alley, surrounded by five children.Yang Gi, the leader of their little pack, stood at the front.His gaze was full of contempt and hatred, and his friends — lesser warriors, eager for cruelty — smirked, ready to humiliate me.It was all too familiar.
And what could I do?Cry out?Flee?Stand my ground to prove I was not as weak as they believed?
Yet all I felt was a cold, crystalline calm.
I looked at them and remembered my path.The path my spirit had walked within that forsaken body, abandoned and broken.But it had not been forgotten entirely.Throughout those thirty years, while they tried to destroy me, I taught myself not to react to foolishness.I taught myself not to complain, not to suffer from grievance.I taught myself to be strong.
— "Did you really think you'd become someone?" — Yang Gi sneered, stepping closer.— "You'll always be a bastard, no matter how strong you are."
I did not answer.What was there left to say?I already knew: despite my efforts, despite the path I had walked that had changed me utterly, to them, I would always be nothing.
They thought I was weak.But they had no idea who stood before them now.
I moved forward without a word.With every step, I did not feel power — I felt knowledge.Knowledge that could not be taught by words.I felt the forgotten movements stirring within me, an ancient memory engraved into my body — simple, precise, merciless techniques that had become a part of my very bones.
Yang Gi was the first to move.A quick punch aimed at my face.I saw it before his hand had even begun to extend.I stepped aside, barely tilting my body, and caught his wrist with ease.I needed no force to twist his arm and drive him to his knees, the pain sharp and real for him — but nothing to me.
The others hadn't expected this.They charged at once, thinking that attacking from different sides would overwhelm me.But that was only their fear driving them forward.They tried to thrust their pain upon me — but I felt only clarity.
I shifted naturally, moving as if on instinct, and brought the first one crashing down.A simple pivot, a sharp motion — and he was sprawled in the dust.Another came from behind.I could feel his steps, his shallow breathing.I turned sharply, planting my foot into his chest and sending him flying back.He didn't even have time to react.
Four remained, but doubt already gripped them.They hesitated, faltered.Yang Gi rose shakily to his feet, his face pale.
I made no move toward him.I merely stood, watching as his false confidence melted away like frost under the morning sun.
The largest among them — a boy taller than the others — tried to grab my shoulder,but it was as if I disappeared from his sight.I slipped past him, a ghost, and drove a precise blow into his chest.He collapsed, coughing, the breath knocked clean from his lungs.
Now they all lay scattered across the ground.I stood among them, my face a mask of indifference.Even as they struggled to rise, defeated and broken, I felt no joy.No hatred.No anger.
I merely knew: they were incapable of more.
I was no longer like them.I was something else entirely.And that truth became clearer with every heartbeat.
Without a word, I turned and walked away toward my quarters.I did not look back.My steps were steady, calm.There was no triumph in my chest.No exultation.Only the silent understanding: I had no place here.
No matter how much I might have once longed to prove my worth to these children, I now saw how foolish it would be.I no longer belonged to their world.No one awaited me here.Even if my father were to see me — he would not approve.He, like all the others, would have preferred that I vanish, that I become something else, something he could proudly claim.But I was not that man.And I would never become him.
Returning to my small room, I dropped my worn satchel onto the ground, exhausted not from battle, but from thought.I lay down on the old, creaking bed.Everything around me felt alien.Heavy.Even though my thoughts were clear and my spirit pure.
I closed my eyes and surrendered to sleep.In my dreams, the past returned — the prison, the pain, the endless suffering.But now it no longer mattered.My spirit was cleansed and whole, and even the most nightmarish memories could no longer wound me.They faded into nothingness.I was empty and purified.
Harmony.
In that moment, I realized — I feared nothing.And in that realization, I finally found rest.
I slept, feeling neither pain nor regret —with a clear mind, and a heart free of chains.