Raizen raised his hand.
Stretched it forward. Palm open. Fingers spread.
And he felt something reach back.
Instantly, he jerked his hand back, eyes wide.
Kenzo let out a laugh "hah, what's wrong?"
Raizen didn't really know what to answer. "I… I felt some reaching back"
Atman made a pleased face. "Oh! Then it must like you"
Raizen stretched his hand forward again, more hesitantly.
Palm open. Fingers spread. The morning air cool against his skin, the mist hanging between the trunks, the pale shafts of sunlight landing on the wet wood around him.
He reached, trying to get to that place again.
Nothing happened.
He pushed - not physically, not with his arm, but with something behind it. The same instinct Kenzo had described. The reaching-without-reaching. The part of himself that existed before words, before thought, before any decision he'd ever consciously made.
And something pushed back again.
