Ryuken strolled onto the freezing upper deck on the second morning while Vane was midway through the second form.
The old master did not say a word. He simply sat down on an iron storage crate at the edge of the deck, rested his calloused hands loosely on his knees, and watched. He was not using the terrifying, invasive assessment he had weaponized in Villa 1.
He was not projecting the Iron Heaven's full, crushing perception. He was just watching. It was the mild, detached way a person watches a flickering fire they have no urgent opinion about yet.
Vane ignored the audience. He finished the sweeping arc of the second form and flowed into the third. He ran it cleanly and brutally. Heaven Gate was present as his base condition, exactly as it had been since the training yard had forced it out of him in the small hours of the morning months ago.
