I couldn't stop thinking about what that strange man had said.
Nature Breathing.
Those words kept repeating in my head.
Where had I heard them before?
Then I remembered.
A tennis tournament.
It had happened a while ago, long before the snowstorm and the crazy man in the bear-fur coat.
Back then, everything had been normal.
Well...
As normal as my life could be.
The sun was shining, the tennis courts were packed, and the audience was buzzing with excitement.
I'd entered the tournament mostly for fun.
I wasn't exactly a professional tennis player, but with my reflexes and my brain, I figured I could handle myself.
Then I saw my opponent.
He was way taller than me.
And probably stronger.
He looked at me, smirked, and seemed to think he'd already won.
That annoyed me.
A lot.
The match began.
He served.
Hard.
The tennis ball shot toward me like a bullet.
But I could see everything.
The spin.
The speed.
The angle.
The exact point where the ball would bounce.
It felt like time had slowed down.
I stepped forward.
WHACK!
My racket connected perfectly.
The ball flew straight back across the court.
The crowd reacted immediately.
My opponent's smirk disappeared.
"Okay," I muttered.
"Let's make this interesting."
We kept playing.
Back and forth.
Faster.
Harder.
The rallies became longer, and the ball seemed to move faster every second.
My breathing became heavier.
My heartbeat increased.
And then something strange happened.
My surroundings started to fade.
The audience disappeared.
The noise disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
There was only me...
the ball...
and my opponent.
He served again.
I returned it.
He returned mine.
Then he smashed the ball toward me with everything he had.
The ball flew straight toward my side of the court.
It was too fast.
Even for me.
I should have missed.
But something inside me suddenly...
clicked.
My breathing changed.
It wasn't normal breathing anymore.
It became controlled.
Rhythmic.
Almost instinctive.
I took a breath.
And somehow, I knew exactly what to do.
My body moved before my brain could even process it.
I swung my racket.
And then—
A powerful gust of air exploded around me.
My eyes widened.
"What...?"
The ball shot forward.
Not normally.
It spiraled through the air, surrounded by a violent current of wind.
Then I heard my own voice.
"Nature Breathing: First Form... Hurricane."
I froze.
I hadn't planned to say that.
I didn't even know what those words meant.
The ball slammed into the opposite side of the court and bounced past my opponent before he could even move.
Silence.
The entire audience stared.
My opponent stood completely frozen, his racket hanging at his side.
Then—
BOOM!
The crowd erupted.
People jumped to their feet.
Everyone was shouting and cheering.
But I couldn't hear them.
I was staring at my racket.
My hands were shaking.
"What did I just do?"
I didn't know.
At the time, I thought maybe I'd just gotten lucky.
Maybe the wind had somehow pushed the ball.
Maybe there was some perfectly reasonable explanation.
But deep down, I knew that wasn't true.
That wasn't normal.
And now, after meeting that strange man in the snow...
I finally remembered it.
Nature Breathing.
The words suddenly made sense.
Or at least...
I thought they did.
Because if that man was telling the truth, then that tennis match wasn't some random miracle.
I'd already used Nature Breathing once.
I just hadn't known what it was.
And that raised an even bigger question.
If I was really the last Nature Breathing user...
who had taught me?