"…Where?"
Guy didn't answer. He moved instead, stepping in quick and easy, and Roen felt a hand land on his shoulder before he'd even turned fully. Too close. Close enough that his next step almost ran into him, the distance gone in a way that didn't feel forced, just taken like it had always been his.
"Go again."
Roen didn't argue. He set his foot and went again, the sequence coming back the way it always did. Step in. The punch went out, the elbow followed tight along the same line, the low kick snapping through where a leg should've been. The first two landed the way they should.
Then it broke.
Same spot.
The space opened in front of him, and nothing came after it.
Guy stepped in again. Closer this time. Two fingers pressed lightly against Roen's forearm mid-motion, cutting it off before it could settle.
"There."
Roen's eyes shifted slightly.
Guy's grin didn't drop, but his tone changed just enough.
"You stop."
Roen held that position for a second, feeling it where it had cut off. Not the movement itself. The point just before it. Where the body waited.
Guy tapped his shoulder once.
"You get in," he said, then made a small forward motion with his hand, like pushing something past a line, "and then you end it."
Roen set his feet.
He stepped in again.
The punch went first, elbow cutting in tight after it, the kick snapping low as he drove through the entry.
The break started to form.
He felt it this time.
Early.
He stepped through it.
Forced the next movement out before it could settle.
It came out wrong. Weight slightly off. Timing not clean. His shoulder dragged behind the motion and the follow-up didn't sit properly in his frame.
But it didn't stop.
The sequence carried one step further.
Dust shifted under his foot.
Guy watched.
Didn't say anything.
Roen exhaled once through his nose, then went again. Entry cleaner this time. Punch sharper. Elbow tighter. Kick lower.
The gap opened again.
Smaller.
He pushed through it.
Still rough.
Still not right.
But it didn't stall the same way.
He stopped on his own this time, breath a little heavier than before, chest rising and settling as he stood there, feeling where it had dragged and where it had held.
Guy tilted his head slightly.
Roen moved.
No warning.
He stepped in fast, closing distance toward Guy the same way he had in training, punch driving forward, elbow following tight through the same line.
Guy shifted.
The punch passed his shoulder.
The elbow hit air.
Roen adjusted mid-step, pushing it forward anyway, low kick snapping in as he tried to keep it together.
Guy's hand touched his arm lightly and pushed it off line.
Roen stepped again.
Didn't stop.
He forced the next movement through, trying to keep it going.
His balance slipped a fraction.
Guy turned with it, letting the strike pass, his hand brushing Roen's shoulder before he let him go.
Roen went again straight away.
Didn't land.
Guy moved once.
One step
and he was already in front of him.
Roen saw the entry, but by the time he tried to follow it, it had already changed. A hand met his guard, not forcing it, just there, and something else came through it straight after, no pause between them.
Roen felt it move through him before he could catch any part of it.
And then
nothing.
Guy stepped back like nothing had happened.
Roen stayed where he was.
Breathing steadying.
That moment sat there again.
Different now.
Guy looked at him, grin softer this time, not as loud.
"That you felt that, didn't you?"
Roen didn't answer.
Guy nodded once anyway.
"That moment where everything stopped?"
A short pause.
"That's where you lose."
The space settled.
Roen's gaze stayed forward, but the line shifted slightly.
Not the movement.
The break.
Yukihiro came up without being pulled.
Same place.
Same kind of gap.
He stood there a second longer.
Then his weight shifted again.