Rhythm 

Both Azuma and Ogata had reached Kenichi's fight against Ryūto around the same time, Ogata was in a tower close to the abandoned factory where the fight was taking place.

The three parties at different locations, the Ryōzanpaku party, picnicking across a river that watched over the factory, Azuma near the street of the place, and Ogata on a tower.

Interestingly enough the moment Azuma arrived at the place, Shigure's senses tingled, telling the others she'll be back, she separated from the rest, going straight to Azuma's location.

Azuma had sensed her approaching, a smile already on his face the moment Shigure reached him, opening his arms, ready for a hug.

Although Shigure was rushing to him, the moment they were close enough, she tried to hide how much she had missed him, her happiness hiding behind her stoic expression. However, Azuma saw straight through it, receiving her with a hug, Shigure only hanged her head low and reciprocated the hug, each other melting in the embrace, which quickly turned into a passionate kiss.

What little Shigure had failed to account, was that Miu, Siegfried, who had suffered a previous injury and was being looked at by Akisame and Kensei, and Kisara, who thanks to Shigure had joined the core group of Ryōzanpaku, had a telescope to be able to see Kenichi's battle clearly, a telescope that due to Miu's curiosity was now pointed straight at her location.

Blushing, steam coming out of her head after seeing the couple's greeting, Miu quickly let go of the telescope, rushing to her mother, that was there to watch the show, and hiding on her back.

Curious Kisara also grabbed the telescope, noticing her Sensei and his girlfriend kissing, Kisara repeated Miu's actions, hiding behind her hands in embarrassment. Not wanting to be left out, Siegfried did the same, only he was confused about who the stoic woman was kissing and started to sing quickly afterward.

Their kiss over, Azuma and Shigure found a better point to look at the fight.

Natsu Tanimoto or Hermit, a tall fair-skinned man with blue eyes, spiky yet wavy chin-length blond hair, wearing a dark hood and cloak with armbands and leather boots, outfit reminiscing of Ogata's but dark. He was finishing his fight against Berserker, Ragnarök's second fist, a tall, muscular young man, fair-skinned with dark blonde hair spiked up and blue eyes, in a white sleeveless shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, and red jacket with its sleeves ripped off.

Berserker was good, but his downfall was the fact he had zero martial arts training, fighting with pure instinct, and besides the lack of training, his style, being the standard one for a Dou user became a limitation. At the disciple stages, fighting primarily with Dou ki, is a disadvantage, especially without a master, since their ki is fueled by emotions, such as rage, their movements become increasingly easy to predict, as their anger rises.

As their fight ended, the main event started, Kenichi and Ryūto starting their fight, high up on his tower, Ogata wondered who would win, his disciple or Ryōzanpaku's.

All masters focused on the fight, both kids showing some level of understanding in Seikūken, basic at best, to keep Seikūken's zone active the fighters had to approach slowly to each other. Grandmasters have the 'bubble' activated at all times, there is no need to slowly approach each other.

Only attacking once, the zones touched, like two bubbles meet. All attacks were being dodged or blocked, the observing Sakaki mentioning how instead of a fight it seemed more like a movie with the amount of unnecessary movements and flashiness they were showing, not undervaluing the fact they're kids.

The fight progressed, the remaining members of Ragnarök started to fight against the Shinpaku alliance, Kenichi giving an inspiring speech about protecting his friends and others to Ryūto.

Hearing his speech, Azuma thought about how Kenichi is often compared to Hayato, but watching this, he believed Kenichi is actually quite similar to Saiga, from the obnoxious kindness, the desire to protect others, to optimism bordering on wishful thinking.

The rest of the Shinpaku alliance fought, Siegfried joining the fight, once the elder literally dopped him in the middle of it, Kenichi and Ryūto continued their fight. Looking at the battle Miu jumped in happiness, seeing through the telescope, how Kenichi threw Ryūto to the ground with the first two-step technique she taught him months ago.

As Ryūto was standing up, Kenichi, with conviction in his voice, confidence surging through, told him, "I don't want you to go blind, take those glasses off."

Ogata heard Kenichi's comment and thought that as promising as the boy was, he stood no chance against his disciple, which had an advantage over Kenichi with his glasses off.

Already up, Ryūto started to laugh at Kenichi, praising him for his strength, telling him that once he took his glasses off, Kenichi would understand why he stood no chance against him. Niijima was confused seeing Ryūto taking his glasses off, being incredible at information gathering, he knew that Ryūto was nearsighted, which made him wonder why he said Kenichi would lose once he stopped wearing glasses.

Equally confused, Kenichi attacked with a barrage of punches, which Ryūto easily blocked, making Kenichi wonder what was happening, not understating how Ryūto was predicting and blocking his attacks. Out of Kenichi's view, Ryūto instantly counterattacked with a punch straight to Kenichi's face, sending the boy flying to the ground.

As Kenichi quickly shifted to defense, the Elder across the river commented on Ryūto, the slightest tinge of surprise on his voice "The inner eye."

Confused, Miu asked what the inner eye was, not allowing her father-in-law to explain, Shizuha intervened, "On high-level battles, it becomes increasingly important to observe your opponent's attack patterns, but not only on a surface level, looking for shifts on balance, on breath, the tension of muscles. All these combined allow martial artists to predict their opponent's moves."

Besides Azuma, Shigure was getting more worried by the second, Kenichi just being hit by a combo from Ryūto, landing on the ground once again, his body bruised, drops of blood starting to leak from some wounds. Azuma talking to her, "At first it was a leveled battle, both of them being able to use Seikūken, but with the kid now using the inner eye, Kenichi is at a disadvantage."

Shigure knew Azuma started talking to distract her, trying to ease her worry, happy that he was worried about her, she got closer to him, hugging his arm, resting her face on his shoulder, mentioning, "Yes….but it's not a developed…inner eye…..the boy clearly….needs to look….at Kenichi's rhythm….to predict his attacks…..besides….there's only…..one timing of….attacks he can….predict. If Kenichi….changes….his timing and….his rhythm….the boy….would lose….his advantage."

Turning his head to look at Shigure, Azuma smiled happily, patting her head, and kissing her forehead, telling her, "Good girl. I think that the most I've heard you speak in a long time."

Shigure hid her face and whispered, "Bully."

Back on the teens fighting, Kenichi was getting destroyed, suffering from hit after hit, one even managing to crack his ribs, Kenichi started to get desperate, not being able to turn the fight in his favor.

Giving a quick glance to Kenichi's fight, Siegfried, being a previous member of Ragnarök, understood Ryūto's inner eye. Quickly telling Kenichi what Shigure had just told to Azuma," Ryūto needs to understand your pattern and rhythm of attacks, that's why you could hit him at the beginning."

Kenichi rapidly tried a technique Siegfried had taught him, it consisted of getting close to your opponent and attacking without any signs, thus having no rhythm, however since the attack needed to be done in close proximity to your opponent, much like Bruce Lee's one-inch punch, it lacked momentum, therefore strength.

His attack not doing as much damage as he hoped, Kenichi rushed to Ryūto, however, it was too obvious, Ryūto retaliated, doing even more damage to Kenichi, launching him down from the elevated pipe they found themselves on.

Saving himself, Kenichi got back on the pipe, his nervousness increasing from almost falling, he headbutted the pipe, calming himself, a thought forming on his mind, telling Ryūto, "If you can read my rhythm what if I use someone else's."

Miu was as worried, if not more than Shigure, with Shizuha behind her, rubbing her back, trying to calm her, Miu explained in surprise noticing Kenichi's stance, "That's!…."

The rest of the masters were equally surprised, especially a happily cheering Apachai, as Kenichi was on a Muay Tai stance, his whole demeanor changing in front of everyone, shouting…..

"Apa!"