Mushin

Infinity Island, Indian Ocean

2002

The next day, garbed in a simple tank top and shorts, I make my way out of the spartan room and head towards the courtyard for my morning exercise. It does not take me long to make my way through the poorly lit corridors to the courtyard that Talia had shown me when she guided me to my room.

The courtyard is big enough to contain hundreds of members of the League that are currently partaking in their morning exercises. As I make my way towards an isolated part of the courtyard, I notice many members paying close attention to my actions. Evidently word of my actions has spread amongst the footsoldiers. After all, who has ever heard of a complete stranger infiltrating the main headquarters of the League of Assassins, beating many of its members, receiving an audience with the master, and being welcomed into said headquarters all in a matter of hours. The question now is whether they study me out of caution, curiosity, or malice.

Arriving at my designated location, an unoccupied section of the courtyard near the weapon racks, I begin with simple stretches before moving on to simple bodyweight exercises for warm up. While a regular push up will no longer increase my strength, it still serves the purpose of getting flowing. Once I feel that I have sufficiently warmed up, I begin to shadow spar using strictly what little airbending form I have picked up from watching and sparring Aang. It takes me a few seconds, but eventually I get a flow going. After one minute, I begin to mix it with firebending forms. Once another minute passes by I mix in earthbending forms. The cycle continues until I am making use of all bending forms. As I begin to truly build a flow, I see Ra's al Ghul approach me in my peripheral vision. Accompanying him are two other people that I have yet to identify.

"That is interesting." comments Ra's as he comes to a stop near me. "You have taken Tai Chi Chuan, Hung Ga kung fu, Northern Shaolin kung fu, Baguazhang, heavily modified them, and made use of them in a harmonic fashion."

Finishing my current combination, I take a deep breath before turning to him.

"It is nothing special." I answer him with a small smile on my lips. "I am sure that the elite of your League can easily do the same."

"Of course." he answers dryly before turning towards his companions. "Allow me to introduce you to your aids, for lack of a better term. Sensei and Lady Shiva."

Lady Shiva, the most dangerous martial artist in this universe, is a tall yet slender woman standing at five feet eight inches and appears to be rather young. She has a pale complexion, short raven colored hair, black lipstick and brown eyes. She wears a long sleeve red shirt that has a diamond shaped breast window, dark grey pants, and black combat boots.

While Lady Shiva is a youthful woman, Sensei is the opposite. Standing at five feet six inches, he is an old, light-skinned man with white hair and one dark right brown eye while his left is a blank milky white. He is completely bald on the top of his head, and the rest of his hair extends near his shoulders. His white mustache extends to his cheeks and under his chin. He has a large scar across his chest, and a smaller scar extending from his forehead to just under his left milky eye. For clothing he wears a simple red gi with gold accents.

While he may not be as dangerous as Shiva, this old man is still one of the most lethal martial artists in this universe. None know what his origin is other than the fact that he is biologically related to Ra's al Ghul in some way. However, the most speculated answer is that he is Ra's father.

"A pleasure." I say to the two with a simple nod while the two go about scrutinising me.

"I will leave you three to it." says Ra's as he turns and leaves with Talia following like a good little duckling.

"Do you have a preferred style of combat?" asks Lady Shiva as she makes her way to a weapon rack to the side.

I follow her movements with my eyes while preparing myself for the upcoming struggle. How typical of her. The first thing she does after meeting a martial artist is test their prowess.

While I am confident in my skills as a martial artist, I have never faced any one of her caliber before. While Bruce was an excellent teacher, Shiva has faced him countless times and has never lost.

"A sword?" she asks jokingly while pointing towards a katana. "No?" she rhetorically asks again. "Or perhaps a kusarigama?" she questions as she points towards the chained scythe.

"Please." I say with an eye roll. "You and I both know that my weapon of choice is the spear."

"So you do know." comments Shiva as she grabs a spear with a wooden shaft from the rack and tosses it to me.

"That you can read one's body language to the point of knowing them intimately?" I answer as I catch the spear and twirl it in my hand. "I suspected that the rumours were true, and you simply confirmed them with your jesting questions."

"It seems that you may be interesting after all." she answers as she grabs a chinese Dao before making her way to face me.

The weapon is a one-handed, single-edged Chinese sword that is primarily used for slashing and chopping. They are very reminiscent of Zuko's swords from his tenure as the blue spirit.

"That is good." she says as she sets herself into a fighting stance. "I would hate to kill you out of boredom."

With my heart racing, I ready myself in a fighting stance and prepare to not hold back. From what I know of her, Shiva is very much capable and willing to kill someone who has failed to meet her expectations. And while my seal will release itself without a thought should I truly be in mortal danger, I have no intention of the League learning of my true capabilities this early.

As if given an unheard and unseen signal, Shiva and I launch ourselves at each other. Not bothering to hold back, I make full use of my unnamed style of spearmanship which incorporates the styles I have gleaned from every spear I have laid my eyes on.

As Shiva comes into range of my spear I stab straight towards her chest. She easily parries the blow only for her to have to dodge backwards as I twirl the spear in my hand and send its shaft towards her knee. Recovering quickly she steps into the opening that my twirl created only for me to kick her in the stomach sending her skidding backwards.

"I cannot read you." she comments with a weird expression that is between a frown and a smile.

Of course she cannot. I am not using any one style, rather it is an amalgamation of every spearmanship style I have learned by reading the weapons that Gilgamesh threw at me. From Achilles, to Cu, and even Li Shuwen's form of spearmanship that eventually became the Bajiquan. Not only have I learned them, but I have also blended them into one style that allows me to quickly switch from one move to the other. When she reads my body language, she is reading thousands of possible combinations with each one having the possibility of killing her.

Not bothering to answer her, I take the initiative and launch myself at her. As we clash once again I can feel that this time things are different. She no longer tries to read my body language and instead opts to react rather than act, showing me that even without her ability to effectively read my body language, she is still very much a lethal warrior. Even with the knowledge that she can kill me in this fight, somehow it almost feels as if I am enjoying the battle.

With one hand I sweep my spear towards her legs in an attempt to knock her down, however she vaults over the spear with a front flip that sends her foot hurtling towards my chest. Not bothering to immediately retrieve my weapon, I redirect her foot away from me while stepping into her personal space, only to have to tuck and roll under her sword slash.

"The most lethal assassin indeed." I comment to her as I stand up. "Even without your ability to read me, you are still very much a hazard to my health. What a violent woman you are."

"Please." she answers with nearly imperceptible sarcasm in her voice. "I despise violence."

Having said our piece, we once again return to our fatal dance. This time there is no denying it, I am enjoying myself. It feels good to be able to do battle and enjoy it with no stakes to worry about. Evidently I am not the only one enjoying the fight as Shiva herself is smiling like a loon.

As Shiva steps in close to me with a downward slash, she makes the range of my spear a burden. As such I block with the shaft, cutting it in half. While the block did not stop the attack, it certainly gave me time to sidestep it and step into her personal space to place the blade of my spear to her throat.

"I do believe that the victory is mine." I comment with a smirk on my lips.

"Well done." she answers. "Truly you are a worthy adversary."

Says the woman who is somehow more dangerous in hand-to-hand combat than she is with weapons. Still, considering who she is and her unpredictable temperament, I will quietly take the compliment.

"Now that you are finished,-" speaks Sensei for the first time. "-perhaps we can focus on our objective."

"But Sensei,-" answers Shiva. "You know I could not help myself. I had to test him. I just had to."

"Regardless, our presence here serves a purpose." he says as he approaches us. "It would best that we attend to it."

"Indeed. Someone wishes to achieve Mushin." comments Shiva as she stares at me as if I possess multiple heads.

"I presume that there is a reason why Ra's al Ghul has chosen you two to aid me?" I ask as I ignore Shiva's incredulous stare.

"Of course." answers Sensei. "There are many processes theorized to help achieve Mushin, however none have been documented to succeed. Shiva and I represent two of those many processes based on our specialties."

Considering that Mushin is achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego during combat, allowing the person to be totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts. Then I can infer that Sensei represents achieving Mushin through meditation while Shiva represents achieving Mushin through constant battles. Essentially achieving it through meditation and synchronising the body, soul and will, or by forcing it through life and death battles similar to how Goku achieved Ultra Instinct.

"Very well." I answer puzzledly as sensei slowly retreats away from me. "When do we begin?"

"Now!?" exclaims Shiva as she launches herself at me, this time with no weapon in her hand.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Infinity Island, Indian Ocean

2002, Around six months after Ambrosius' Arrival

"Tell me Ambrosius,-" says Ra's as he moves one of his rooks to take one of my knights on the chess board. "Why have you decided to seek a path to Mushin? It is not a requirement for one to be considered an accomplished warrior, nor is it easily achieved. Many spend their lifetimes pursuing it, yet I can count the amount of successes throughout my lifetime on one hand."

We are currently in his study, sometime well after midnight, playing our usual game of chess with a timer by the side. Should no one win within the designated time, then it will be considered a draw. So far I take the lead with 95 wins to his 85 with a single draw.

"Truthfully,-" I answer as I move a pawn forward. "-there is no reason other than wanting to better myself. As you have noticed, I am an accomplished warrior with few equals. I simply believe that Mushin is the next logical step in my journey."

"Logical indeed." he answers as he carefully studies the board. "However, is it such an important endeavor that you had to seek out the League? Were you not afraid that I would have you slayed in your sleep?"

Having said so, he moves the same rook to take one of my pawns that was dangerously close to promoting, only to lose it to my own rook and placing his King in check.

"You are a pragmatic man Ra's. Every action you take serves to benefit you. Killing me when I offer you the possibility of knowing how to achieve Mushin would not benefit you in any way. Especially since you lose nothing" I answer as he moves his King.

Besides, when one is raised by the Viper himself, one tends to inherit his habit of ingesting poison and venom to become immune. A dash of the Tears of Lys here, or a sprinkle of basilisk venom there will eventually help build a certain amount of immunity. I have been doing that for centuries with poison and venom from the Game of Thrones universe, the Percy Jackson universe, and even from the Nasuverse. The poisons from those universes are worse than anything the League can muster.

"Perhaps. However, do you not fear what I would do with that knowledge?" he asks as I make my rook retreat.

"Knowledge, in this situation, is not enough." I reply as I move my previous pawn forward. "We all know what is required to achieve Mushin. The body, soul, and will must act as one. Yet, like you stated earlier, those who have succeeded can be counted on a single hand."

"Indeed." he answers as he takes my pawn with his remaining rook.

We continue to play in silence with no one ever truly taking the upper hand.

"Have you thought about my proposal?" he asks as he takes my remaining rook with his King.

"I have no interest in becoming your heir." I answer him as I move my remaining Knight away from his King. "While I certainly understand your sentiment towards humanity's reckless destruction of nature, I cannot abide by your methods. Should I take leadership, I will change the methods, which will no doubt clash with many of your supporter's beliefs."

And I also do not want your daughter, I think to myself.

"Fair enough." answers Ra's just as the timer rings, bringing the game to an end.

"A second draw." comments Ra's as Ubu steps out the shadows to clean up the boards.

"Will you be retiring for the night?" asks Ra's as I stand up.

"I will. Have a pleasant night." I answer him as I turn around and leave.