I slumped limply onto a nicely padded cot in the room Oakun had given me for the night.

“I…...was finally able to escape…….”

Void rubbed his head against my cheek.

-Poor Papa…...-

….You’re the reason I’m even like this!!!!

Whatever, I’m just going to get some sleep….

“EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!! SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I was jerked from a comfortable sleep by the shrill screams belonging to the voice I remember as Misty’s…...hmmmm, now that I think of it, she has the same name as……

“Ne~ Misty, this is your doing right?”

My mischievous sword had been surprisingly silent since we were discovered by Serena…..that I could understand, but now that I think of it, I’m surprised she hadn’t spoken when Arvid made his comments yesterday to the old man and me……

-Hmph, such a silly thing should not have the same name as the magnificient me! I always duly punish those who dare to bear my name!-

“Ah, I see…..”

I turned over and went back to sleep, according to my internal clock, there should still be a few hours of sleep left until the sun rose.

“Hey Felix!”

I groaned and opened my eyes to see Fate’s cheerful face.

“You know, even though this is a dream, you’re still stealing my mental rest time…..”

She pouted a little at my words.

“Puuuu, I just wanted to check in on you and tell you about the little tweak I made to your newest skill~”

I stared at her expectant face for a long moment.

“Let me guess…... I can change genders?”

Her shoulders slumped.

“Awwww, I hate it when you guess right…….I like surprising you…..”

“Then you shouldn’t make such uncreative changes…...”

Her shoulders slumped even more and she slunk away, I had to suppress a grin, it was quite fun to tease a crybaby like Fate~

“Fufufu, don’t be so depressed Fate, surely you’ve gotten used to this from all the times you’ve ‘checked up’ on me…..anything interesting going on that I might want to know?”

Fate sniffed and turned to look at me with watery eyes.

“I don’t think I want to tell you now……..”

Tch, so childish. I stared her down, and after a long few minutes, she ducked her head and muttered something.

“Haaaa? I didn’t hear that~”

She glared at me.

“One of those minor gods that think they rule the world has been messing around with some things ever since he felt you reincarnated there, you should have some interesting surprises for the school tournament! And I think I’m going to make them even more interesting now!”

I tilted my head in confusion.

“Ara? I don’t remember hearing anything about minor gods being worshiped in this world…..”

Fate pouted at me.

“That’s because you immediately ignore that ‘boring stuff’ as you put it, and automatically forget anything you hear about it!”

I nodded seriously in comprehension.

“Ahhh, that does sound like me, what was this boring stuff we were talking about?”

Fate stared blankly at me.

“Nnnnn, you already forgot……..well, let’s put it this way, a force has meddled and created some extra-strong people that you’ll encounter in the tournament!”

I grinned.

“Ne~ Sounds like it’ll be more fun than I first thought!”

Fate gave a small smile.

“Yep! Make it even more interesting for me, ok?”

I gave a small nod.

“Yep, I was already planning too~”

Fate leaned back in her chair.

“Well then, I suppose I should let you get back to your peaceful sleep...”

I smiled wryly at her.

“Please do…..”

I felt my eyes close and I soon slipped away into peaceful darkness.

Something was drawing me forward…….it was warm and full of energy. My body floated forward without my control, through cold murkiness to the pleasant warmth, it glowed like a bright sun to my senses but all my eyes perceived was darkness. I curled around the warmth, letting it’s heat push away the cold and the darkness had brought me. A voice quietly whispered to me.

“Oh, little one…….when will you remember what you truly are?”

I felt myself curl even tighter to the warmth as a gush of sadness flooded my soul. I responded to the whisper with one of my own.

“I don't want to remember…….but I will have eventually, won’t I?”

The warmth grew even larger, enveloping me entirely in it’s warmth, almost like a hug.

“Yes, you will…….but you still have a little more time to be free of it, as is your right, and even then, it will be a long time in coming until you actually have to fulfill your duty.”

I felt myself nod and then gently uncurl, pushing myself away from the warmth and back into the icy black surrounding it.

“It’s time for me to wake up….”

I jerked awake at those words, my senses bring in the feel of the unfamiliar room and bed.

“What in The World Was That!?”

I felt Void poke his head up wearily from his spot on the bed.

-Eh? Papa….what are you talking about……*Yawn* still sleepy…...-

I shook my head silently in response, what in the world was that dream? It was so strange…...and yet the warmth had felt so familiar…...I shook my head again, this time to brush the thoughts away. It was just a weird dream, I had those pretty often, though this one is top of the list….I slipped from the bed and began putting on my clothes. Void slowly climbed up my body to my shoulders, then promptly slung himself around my neck and went back to sleep. I imagined he kinda resembled a strange scarf made of scales, feathers, and fur…..I felt Oakun stick his head into my room.

“Oho? Felix, you’re awake so late? I’m surprised you slept through the ruckus Misty made earlier this morning, she kept yelling something about spiders…..that girl really is a strange one….but we took the opportunity to get the village started on training early today~ It’s a little late, but do you want to join in?”

I grinned at him.

“Sure~”

The old man led me out of the house to one of the ladders and I happily slid down in, not bothering to climb down. My feet hit the ground pretty hard, but I still absorbed the impact fine. I paused to observe the training ninjas through my senses while the old man climbed down the ladder.

The younger kids were training on the less interesting parts of the obstacle and as the obstacle increased, the older the kids were, stopping at about age sixteen for the highest difficulty. All of the older adults were just meditating around the lake, only a few were supervising the kids.

My study finished, I stepped lightly over to the very beginning of the course, time to see how far I could get!

The first part of the obstacle course was fairly easy, it was a lot like the one Raina had set up at Dagda. When I entered the second area, I felt a bit of pressure weigh me down, though not nearly enough to inhibit me. The second area was just a little more interesting, involving a lot of climbing with moving hand holds, disabling traps, and dodging sharp flying blades and balancing on the tops on tiny metal poles while traversing a spike filled pit…..the pressure gradually grew as I moved forward, but I still passed the area easily. Finally, I reached the part of the course that the fifteen and sixteen kids were trying to pass.

My next obstacle was quite a bit different. It was a tiny metal thread that stretched across a long stretch of thorny brambles that had winds spells that was generated randomly and caused the thread to swing wildly. As I stepped onto the thread, it immediately sunk under my weight, and I quickly stepped off. Hmmmm, it’s seems this obstacle requires a body lightening technique as well as balance….I hadn’t used one of those in a while…...I preferred to rely on my body instead techniques, one is far less likely to be thwarted than the other……and I enjoyed mighty experts gaping at my ability to do things that they had to use difficult techniques to accomplish……..but in these cases, it was necessary. I reached smoothly into my ki core and began running ki through my body, giving it a slightly upward motion so my body would resist the pull of gravity. This time, when I stepped on the thread, it barely sank at all. The thin thread pressed into the pads of my feet, but not so tight that it would slice them. The wind that caused the thread to lurch around was irritating, but I had developed this body’s sense of balance quite well so I crossed the thread fairly quickly and leapt lightly to the adjoining platform. The largest number of kids were stuck on on this stage, from what I could tell, they were having trouble traversing a set of suspended walls that were so far apart that only the tips of their fingers and toes could be used to brace themselves in between the walls and slowly scoot forward. I frowned, at the size of my current seven year old body, I had no hope of reaching the boards, but I couldn’t use my new size changing ability because Oakun was probably Raina’s father and if she found out about it, that would be the last nail in my coffin…..I clapped my hands together as an idea came to me. Since I was using techniques, I might as well show off!

Focusing ki into the base of my feet, I lept over the group of kids, twisting as I was in mid-air, and lightly planting both of my feet on one of the boards. Now perpendicular to the ground, I walked easily to the other side of the wall and stepped easily onto the next platform. A burst of surprised exclamations burst from the group of kids behind me and I smirked as I examined the next obstacle.

Oakun’s Point of View:

I tugged at my beard in amazement as Felix easily crossed to the hardest part of our training course, true, it was only setup to test technique at the moment so with his strength of level he would be able to easily pass the first two area, but the last area couldn’t be passed by strength alone….yet the kid still looked like he was just taking a walk in the park!

A grin unconsciously began to grow on my face, fufufu, I’ll have to have him teach me that technique he used to cross the walls, it seemed a bit different from the Shadow walk technique that all of the elders of the clan were given at the end of training….the body lightening technique he used was quite high-class as well…….as expected, he really is That Guy…..A flash of light from the very end of the course suddenly caught my eye, and turned to look. A small orb had appeared, glowing dimly. I tilted my head to the side in confusion, that had never happened before…...oh, wait, I think I remember something about it from the clan history…..ah, that’s right, one of the clan geniuses angered the training courses spirit and that orb appeared, causing him to vanish…….Hrmmmm, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t dare intervene, that consciousness that the ancestor created is way too powerful…..well, since it’s him, I suppose he’ll be fine, one way or another~........but it looks like I won’t be learning those techniques anytime soon…..pity….I turned my attention back to Felix as he continued to move forward. Really, what kind of training had he used to strengthen his body….even a Void level user would have a lot trouble moving, but this guy doesn’t even seem very affected!

Felix’s Point of View:

The pressure was starting to actually inhibit my movements some, which made the harder parts of the course all the more interesting for me~ These guys had some really wonderful hidden traps in here, even with my experience in such matter, I was almost caught a few times…..I’ll have to see if I can pry any clan secrets from Oakun….Sadly, I eventually reached the end of the course…..and it had just been getting interesting…….On the finally platform, there was a pedestal with an orb resting on it, I quirked my head in confusion. I don’t remember sensing this when I first checked out the course…...my hand started to twitch, and my soul itched to touch the orb, I had a feeling that something fun was about to happen. I gave into my curiosities urgings and place my right hand on the orb. Pain ripped through my body as the orb rapidly pulled me into it’s depths, breaking almost all of my bones along the way. I felt my body begin to shut down, tch, it still wasn’t strong enough to resist this much damage…..I had wanted to be conscious to see what interesting place the orb was taking me, but it seems I still haven’t overridden enough of this body's automatic functions…..

The last thing I heard before my mind forcibly shut off was Arvid saying….

“Boss…...I think I’m in love…...”

……..Seriously!?