Ascension of Ren Yuto

Ch1 pt4

Ren wakes up to find himself in his new room. Disoriented yet again. He walks out to see Adamu bringing a bowl to the table.

“Come. You must eat. Then you will go for exercise and bathing.”

Ren walks over to the table and sits.”

“How did you sleep, Ren?”

“Very well. Thank you.”

“I see you have manners. That will take you far.”

Ren nods softly and continues eating his meshi. Adamu brings his bowl to the table and sits. They sit in silence thereafter. They finish their food. Adamu grabs Ren’s bowl and says. “Go for stretching and bathing.

“Ok, Adamu.” He gets up and heads out the door and straight to the courtyard for the morning exercise. When he gets there, he looks around for Akiko. He scans the whole crowd for a moment but does not see her. The instructions begin. He feels a little disappointed that he did not see her.

After stretching, Ren heads to the steam room for bathing. Feeling excited and impatient to finish so that he can learn more from Adamu. Curious about what he will learn and anxious all at once. He finishes bathing and heads back to the house. As he walks past the white lotus flowers on the way there he notices more of the fresh, sweet, and fruity scent. A very pleasant sense of calm comes over him.

Walking into the house, Adamu is again sitting on a pillow on the floor. Another pillow lay just across him. Ren assumes that is where he is supposed to be so he goes over to sit.

With his eyes closed, Adamu says “Have you ever meditated before?”

“No. I have not.”

“Meditating is the most important thing one can learn. Calming your mind. Moving past racing thoughts and relaxing are just the beginning.”

“Ok.”

“With much practice, you will be able to control many things about you and around you. You will gain better control of your emotions and regulate them as you see fit.”

“Ok.”

“First. You sit on the pillow like me. Legs crossed. You can loosely place your hands together in your lap or you can put your hands on your knees palms up with your middle and index fingers touching softly.”

“Ok.”

“Shhh. Now. Close your eyes and start by taking a breath in slowly and deeply through your nose.” They both breathe in. “Now out through your mouth.” They breathe out.

“Now I want you to imagine a calming energy coming in when you breathe in and I want you to feel all of the negative going out when you breathe out.” Ren breaths in and out rapidly.

“No. Not fast. This is a calming exercise. There is no race. Relax. Lower your shoulders. Let it go. There is time. This is all that we are doing today is learning how to calm yourself.”

Ren starts feeling a calming coming over his body. Adamu feels something strange, like heat. He opens his eyes to see Ren slightly glowing a faint red. Alarmed but aware this might happen but not expecting it this soon. Knowing the boy has special abilities, he sees that he has his work cut out for him. Now the fun part. Get Ren to ‘cool down’ just a little bit.

“Ren. I need you to think of something cold. Like snow in winter. The coolness of the water in the rice paddies.”

Ren follows instructions and puts those things in mind.

“Stay calm and cool. Relax. How do you feel?”

“I feel warm. Like standing in the summer sun.”

“I need you to imagine the cold of winter. Playing in the snow. I can feel your heat. Whatever thoughts you can think to lower your body temperature.”

Ren opens his eyes to look at Adamu and notices a slight red glow emanating from himself and starts freaking out, effectively breaking his concentration and stopping the heat.

“What was that?!” Ren asked. Feeling afraid of himself. Adamu replies “That was just some of your powers. You need to think cold when you meditate or just meditate outside.”

Ren, still scared, says “Ok. How do I do that?”

“You need to learn ‘the middle way’.”

Ren looks at him confused.

“The middle way is not going to any extreme. Eating too much food is one extreme while starving yourself is the opposite extreme. Finding the middle between the two is vital. And this principle must be applied to everything in your life.”

“Ok. How does that work?”

“You must figure out what it is that makes you give off so much heat and calm down that part of you. If you know you will get hot then you must think about cold. It’s all about balance. Maybe you are scared. You must relax and fear not yourself when meditating. At some point in your life, you may find it useful to control heat to your advantage. But for now, let’s try to lower the heat and bring peace to your mind.”

“I was just pulled from the only home I have ever known to come here. And now you want me to think about nothing and be calm and relaxed and think about cold.”

Adamu looks upon Ren and thinks for a moment. If he is stressed here, maybe getting him to think about home would help.

“So tell me about things back home. Maybe that will ease your mind.”

“Chiyo was my caretaker. I’ve known her always. She made sure I had food and clothes. Talked to me about my day. She was the best. I miss her.”

Adamu notices a light blue glow around Ren and feels a slight chill in the air.

“Ren.”

“Uh huh?”

“You are now glowing blue and giving off cold chills.”

“I am?” Ren looks down at himself and sees the glow. Feeling a little more calm now thinking about home he is not afraid of his cold.

“You have visited both extremes now. Do you think you can find the middle and meditate for me?”

“This is where self-control comes in. When meditating, we clear our mind of all thoughts. Focus on the present moment. Now close your eyes and just be here. Right now. In this space. Just listen to the sounds around you. Feel the temperature in the air. Check your body for tension and let it go.”

Ren sits with his eyes closed, relaxes and checks his body for tension, and tries to release it. As he does this for a moment, Adamu does not see an aura around Ren. This brings calm to Adamu. For a moment the crisis is averted. Thinking about all of the work he must do with Ren to teach his self-control. Knowing that his powers are just beginning to grow and sees a lot of potential.

“You are doing very good.”

Adamu continues to give positive feedback to Ren for a few moments.

“Ok Ren, when you are ready, you can open your eyes.”

Ren opens his eyes.

: Now take a deep breath and let out any tension you have.”

Ren loosely pushes his remaining tension out in an exhale and opens his eyes.

“How do you feel?”

In a very calm and low voice, almost a whisper, Ren replies “I feel good.”

“Good.” Adamu takes a deep breath.

“let's call it for today. I think we have had enough excitement. Hold on to this calming feeling as long as you can. We must eat to get our strength back.”

They get up and Ren walks around the room while Adamu prepares some food.

“May I go walk around outside?”

“Of course. Don’t go far. I will call out for you when it's ready.”

“Ok.”

Ren walks out to the lotus flowers and looks around with new eyes. He takes a moment to close his eyes and pulls in a deep breath of the sweet smell of the flowers and lets out a slow sigh of relief. Then he walks over to the little bridge and stands in the middle to look down in the water below and watches the coi fish swim about. All the while with a smile on his face. He looks up to gaze upon the mountains in the distance. A sense of peace falls over him with a slight tingling all over his body.

“Ren. It’s ready. Come eat.” Adamu yells out.

Ren walks back inside for dinner. He carries this feeling of calm to bed where he lays there for a moment thinking about the day. He wonders just how much power he has. What he can do with it? How to control it. What powers his parents have and if he will ever meet them. Feeling tired, he releases these thoughts and drifts off to sleep curious of what tomorrow will bring.