The Night the Stance Shifted

Several days had passed since Gabi arrived in Kyoto.

Without ever becoming clear words,
the same question remained at the back of his mind.
It did not disappear.
It did not take shape.
It was simply there, all the time.

What did I come here to do?

A small bottle that fit in his palm.
An emerald-green liquid.
Hiragana on the label. Kiyouto.
He knew how to read it.
He still did not know what it meant.

His mother.
Himself.
He had come this far because he felt there was something here.
But he did not feel any closer to an answer.

The answer remained out of sight.
Instead, the sensations in his body were moving to the front.

＊

There was a gym he had started going to after arriving in Kyoto.
Before coming, he had only looked up the location.
He had planned to stay for a while.

He started boxing as a child.
His body had been weak, and he needed to build it up.
That was when his father was still alive.
He no longer remembered the details.
Only the smell of sweat and the rhythm of breathing remained in his body.

When he pushed open the gym door, the air changed.
The smell of rubber and metal.
The rebound of the floor.
If you struck, it struck back.
If you stepped in, the step remained.
What you did stayed where it was done.

There was no room here to cover anything up.

Gabi changed and began to stretch.
Shoulders.
Back.
Hips.
The same order as always.

As his breathing settled,
the words in his head quietly pulled away.

Then a voice came from the back.

“Hey, Gabi.”

It was Jindai, the gym’s owner.
When Gabi turned around, Jindai was lightly motioning toward the ring in the back.

“Got an unusual guest today.”

Gabi did not answer.
He finished stretching and walked toward the ring.

When he trained, he always brought the small bottle with his towel.
He did not know why.
It just felt better that way.

He set the towel and the bottle down on the stand beside the ring
and looked up.

There was a man there.

A towering figure.
White, broad-shouldered, thick through the torso.
Built like a professional bodybuilder,
yet dressed in something that looked like a black-and-white kimono.

The man was performing a form.

His movements were astonishingly smooth.
Rather than muscles moving,
it looked like a single flow changing shape as it continued.

There was no sense of force pushing forward.
And yet, the space tightened naturally around him.

The form stopped.

The man’s movement froze.

For just an instant,
his gaze seemed to drop to the bottle.

Gabi could not be sure.

The next moment, the man looked at him.

From the ring, he spoke briefly.
In English.

“Come up.
Let’s spar.”

His expression remained calm.
He gave a small gesture with his hand.

Gabi glanced at Jindai. Jindai smiled slightly
and tilted his chin toward the ring.

Gabi stepped up.

It was a spar.

They put on training gloves
and faced each other.

Up close, the man looked even larger.

Gabi bounced lightly on his feet,
measuring the distance.

In that instant, he understood.

The man did not move.
And yet,
Gabi’s position shifted first.

Gabi stepped in.

A hook.
A straight.

Nothing landed.

Before impact,
his body was turned aside.

His footing was taken.
A shoulder lifted.
His vision slipped.

The place he had been standing—
he was no longer there.

At this rate, he would be taken.

Then it happened.

It was the instant the man’s stance shifted.

Before thought could catch up,
Gabi’s body moved.

A sharp uppercut.

The height difference made the jaw unreachable.
Still, it broke through one edge of the man’s stance.

His fist drove into the solar plexus.

He thought it pierced through—
and in the next moment,
his fist sank into something like a bottomless marsh.

There was no pushback.
No feeling of being blocked.
Just his strength draining away.

At the same time, his footing was scooped out from under him
and his balance collapsed.

“Ah—”

A small cry escaped him.

But it had gone in.
The sensation of hitting the man’s solar plexus was still there.

The man’s eyes widened for an instant.

Then,
the corner of his mouth twisted slightly.

A grin.

He muttered, almost to himself.

“So it’s you…
I see.”

Gabi had no idea what he meant.

After a brief pause,
the man added quietly,

“…the color of the sea.”

For a moment,
it felt as if time had stopped.

Then Jindai’s voice broke the silence.

“Hey.
You weren’t serious, were you?”

The man said nothing.
He removed his gloves
and stepped down from the ring without looking back.

He left the gym.

Gabi remained standing on the ring,
taking a few breaths.
Some part of his body was still lagging behind.

He returned to the stand and picked up the bottle.

The emerald-green liquid inside
was vibrating, faintly.

Gabi watched it in silence.

＊

Outside the gym, the night air was cold.
Streetlights mixed with moonlight,
spilling across the pavement.

Gabi began to walk.
He had not decided where to go.
But his breathing was different now.

He did not know what had happened.
But he did not feel that nothing had happened either.

The moonlight illuminated the road.
It was only light—
and yet, the ground beneath his feet felt slightly more real.

He pulled up his hood
and walked into the Kyoto night.