Sweating, Yami looked up at the clock on the wall. It had now been 20 minutes since he had started his attempts at saturating the ink with his life essence. Constantly trying to find a new way to pour out life essence into the ink, he would strain his muscles, as if he were trying to force it out, but to no avail. It felt as though his muscles would try to fit through one hair follicle, yet he continued to strain himself, causing fatigue. With a heavy sigh, Yami leaned back in his chair, being careful to keep his hands in the bowl to not spill any ink. Beginning to think out-loud, Yami spurted out his frustrations.

“Man, this stuff is hard. How am I going to master something that can take a lifetime if I can’t even saturate the ink? Everytime I try, it just gets harder. It’s as if I’m trying to push something through too small of a hol-”

Yami was overtaken by a look of both excitement and realization.

“This’ll definitely work.”

Calming himself down, Yami sat upright in his chair and closed his eyes. He began to take deep breaths, and he felt the air rush through his nostrils down to the bottom of his lungs as they filled, sending bursts of relaxation with each exhale. With these bursts, his muscles began to loosen and relax themselves, allowing Yami to reach a deep state of meditation. As he did so, he felt the power inside of him, only this time much clearer. Instead of him feeling it as just an idle liquid inside of his vessel, waiting to be sucked out, he instead felt a fluid like motion coursing through his body. He also felt that this liquid was in different areas in different densities than others.

“I see,” Yami thought to himself. “So this power truly IS alive inside of me… It’s a part of me. So if I truly concentrate, I should be able to control this beast.”

Yami squinted as he focused all of his might into moving the vast amounts of life essence towards his hands.

“Up my back left leg… Across my chest… Down through my arms.... There!”

With a large open smile, Yami opened his eyes. He felt the amassed life essence in or close to his hands. Calming himself once again, he focused again on the ink. With a disappointed grunt, he acknowledged that the ink was not absorbing the life essence any faster than beforehand. Contemplating his next course of action, he began to try his muscle straining again. In doing so, he noticed something he hadn’t before. With an excited laugh, Yami began to focus on his new method.

After the hour elapsed, Posche walked up to the door into the hidden room.

“I sure hope the kid is okay. No, I hope he could even complete it. If he is truly what he says he is… He needs to be the best of the best.”

Upon placing his hand on the door and discharging some of his life essence, he pushed the door slightly inward, which easily gave into his push. As Posche looked inside, he noticed that Yami still sat in the position he left him in. Walking towards him, he let out a stern voice.

“Well? How are you progressing? Harder than you thought, eh-”

As Posche looked at Yami’s face, he saw an expression which appeared to be serious concentration. Eyebrows furrowed inward, Yami continued to focus on his task at hand as he responded to Posche.

“I’m not sure if this is enough, but I’m giving it all I got.”

Posche, letting out a small chuckle, began to move towards Yami.

“Hand me the bowl. We’ll see if you have enough the instant you take out your hands.”

Yami began to raise his hands slowly. His arms shook not only in fear of not having completed his task, but also in fatigue. The hour had taken it’s toll on the young Yami, yet he had not once lowered his guard to the task at hand. Soon, his wrists and been at the edge of the ink, and Yami continued to raise his hands out of the ink, and as he did so, his face turned from one that looked as if it were bracing for pain to that of one that had seen a horrific scene. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated. As he looked at his hands that were now out of the ink entirely, he noticed that there was not a trace of ink on them. Hands quivering, he turned to look at his teacher, which in turn gave him a smile.

“Very well done! I’m impressed that you picked this up so easily! Since you merged your life essence with the ink, it no longer feels the need to bond with other things than your life essence, so it is essentially as if we spilled a liquid in outer space! Fascinating, isn’t it?”

Yami simply sat in his chair, yet the knowledge that he had succeeded did not lessen his anxiousness. Letting his hands fall to his lap, he grinned.

“I did it.”

Letting out a long sigh, Yami fell over in his chair, prompting the rest of his body to fall down, landing not so softly on the floor. Posche, setting down the bowl, ran over to Yami and set him back in the chair. Snores had begun to protrude from Yami’s mouth as he slept peacefully. With a quizzical look on his face, Posche walked back over to the bowl.

“Just how much did he put in?”

Slowly dipping his hands into the bowl, he sent a small amount of his own life essence in. In doing so, his hands began to burn, sending Posche backwards trying to get any ink off of his hands.

“What the hell,” Posche said out loud as if he were asking the now asleep Yami?

Upon wiping off all of the ink with a towel that laid on the cart, he inspected his hands. The redness and swelling of them indicated burns. Posche looked at his hands, stunned.

“What an absurd amount of life essence! He didn’t even know it existed until now, so how is it possible for him to acquire this much, let alone be able to harness and use it? I suppose he is the Jinsei… Just what exactly is he? How powerful is this child? Should I even train him to learn a Sirushi Inochi, to fully utilize his abilities? He has the prowess of a master as he is right now!”

Posche turned to look at Yami, and although he witnessed the power he had exerted, his mind simply saw a boy sleeping in his chair, not that of a skilled Pubiàn Fanxiang.

Yami groggily opened his eyes. Daylight blurred them, and he rubbed them with his hands to help awaken himself. With a yawn, Yami stretched and stood up from his chair. He cracked his neck as well as his back. As he read the time on the clock, he gave a look of disbelief. He had slept nearly three hours, as it was nearing 7 p.m. and he was to be home by 8 p.m. or he would be yelled at. Readjusting his clothes, Yami began to rush out of the room when he was stopped by Posche’s hardy voice.

“Where are you going?”

Yami turned to look at Posche. Yami saw bandages wrapped around Posche’s hands as though he were going to box him.

“I need to be going home now. Can we continue this tomorrow?”

As Posche looked at the clock, he turned to Yami just to simply nod. Yami through up his right hand in a wave as he opened the door and darted through Posche’s basement, up his stairs, and out his door. As Yami passed by Yagusimi Park, he checked his wristwatch that read 7:34 p.m.

“At this rate, I’m gonna be late!”

As his thoughts of being late jumbled in his head, Yami tripped on a rock and fell to the ground, knocking his glasses off in the process. As Yami began to pick himself up, he looked at his hands for any scrapes.

“Good. Now I don’t have to explain two things. Now for my glasses...”

Beginning to look for his glasses, he spotted them in the grass a few five feet away. As he reached for them, he suddenly stopped. He turned his palm towards himself and looked at it.

“How can this be… This is… impossible.”

The blurred picture of a hand was no longer able to be seen, being replaced with a normal hand. Grabbing his glasses, Yami closed his eyes, placed the glasses in front of them, and opened them once again. In shock, Yami paced backwards a few steps. The world had become as blurry as it was without the glasses. Taking them off, the cloudy world became clear again. Yami shook his head in disbelief and read his watch. It was now 7:41 p.m., and he had no time to waste. Pocketing his glasses, Yami began to sprint towards his house once again.

“I wonder how much life essence I have left…”

Entering his meditating state, Yami continued a sprint ahead as he looked for any spare life essence.

“C’mon… I know you’re here somewhere… The excess should still be around my hands…”

Concentrating heavily on his hands, Yami closed his eyes and squinted.

“Where are you.. Where are you… THERE YOU ARE! Now get on down to my legs!”

As if he were grabbing the life essence with his mind, Yami pulled it from his palms up his arms, down his torso, and spread it throughout his legs and feet. Yami entering a determined state opened his mouth.

“NOW ACTIVATE,” yelled Yami!

He felt a throbbing sensation in his legs, as if there laid a second heart inside of them. Yami’s speed picked up drastically, leaving small imprints on the concrete sidewalk that lay underneath his rampage. Nearing his house, Yami felt his legs begin to slow down. Allowing his body some rest, Yami rested his body against a tree in his front lawn. He glanced down at his wristwatch. 7:48 p.m. He had not only made it in time, but completed a trip that should’ve lasted him 15 minutes only took 4 minutes.

Grinning ear to ear, Yami walked into his house and went straight into his room, shutting the door upon entry, and promptly laid on his bed. Staring at his egg white ceiling, Yami let out a small chuckle.

“I never would’ve thought Shénmi would be a loser like Mr. P! Maybe there is more to life than just living.”

As he turned over onto his side, Yami removed his phone from his pocket and read the time. It was now 8 p.m. Accordingly, Yami felt the consequences of vigorous training. Fatigue overcame his muscles, and his breathing became deeper. Tapping the screen of his phone, Yami opened an application labelled “Messenger,” and tapped on a conversation labelled “The Group.” The light blue circle that resided next to the name indicated that there were new messages. Upon opening, Yami began to scroll through the messages. The messages that were present were nothing more than three friends attempting to setup a time schedule for a gaming spree. Yami pressed the power button on the side of his phone, simultaneously setting it on his desk and rolling over onto his stomach. Closing his eyes, Yami’s thoughts began to drift with no real direction.

“I wonder if Shippai is well…”

Burying his head farther into his pillow, Yami’s thoughts faded as he fell asleep.

He had no dreams that night.

With a yawn, Yami sat up in his bed and stretched, yawning violently. Wiping his groggy eyes, Yami’s thoughts began to recollect.

“Man, I really slept in… What time is it?”

Attempting to open the blinds that covered his window, Yami quickly turned away from the brightness of the outside light which penetrated his room. Grabbing his phone, Yami turned it on, which caused it to display the time. It was 9:24 a.m.

“What’s this?”

Noticing there was a notification at the top of the screen, Yami swiped down to see that he received an email. Tapping on the notification caused an app titled “E-Mail” to launch, and loaded an email from Posche. Yami’s eyes quickly scrolled down through the email, and nearing the bottom, his eyes widened sporadically and he jumped up from his bed. The email that he read kept echoing throughout his head as he got dressed and began to run to Posche’s house.

“Upon inspecting the concentration of the ink, I have found it to be of the utmost importance that you come to my house. However, if you are too late, I will forbid you from learning from me. I expect you to be here by 9:30 a.m. Just walk into my basement when you arrive.”

As Yami sprinted in desperation, he checked his wristwatch. It firmly read 9:28 a.m., causing Yami to sprint at an even more considerable speed.

“At this rate, I’ll definitely be late! I must hurry… I know! I’ll try to do the same thing I did yesterday!”

His heart racing, Yami closed his eyes and searched his body for anymore life essence to be used. Anticipating an excruciating hunt for life essence as he had to the night prior to this morning, Yami became shocked as he found he had a plentiful supply within him, more than he had yesterday. As he calmed himself, Yami focused on moving the life essence back into his legs for his increased speed. As he did so, he felt his speed drastically increase. Almost unable to control his speed, Yami found himself on the road that led to Posche’s house. In the distance, he saw a car driving in the same direction he was heading. Yami glanced down at his wristwatch. The time now read 9:29 a.m. As Yami stared at his wristwatch in disbelief, he felt something brush near him, creating a wooshing sound. Glancing behind him, Yami widened his eyes at the car that was ahead of him not a moment earlier.

“There’s no way… The speed limit is 30 mph on this road!”

Turning his head back, Yami saw Posche’s house on his right, and with extreme force, Yami began to slow himself down, grabbing onto a pole which was part of the house’s staircase, swinging Yami up the stairs and into the house. Slamming the basement door open, Yami jumped down the staircase, causing him to hit the concrete wall of the basement with great force. As pain surged through his body, Yami pounded on the door into the room in which he infused the ink.

“Hmm… You are 3.43 seconds late… I suppose I’ll let you pass.”

Posche stood behind Yami with two cups.

“I don’t suppose you’d want some coffee, seeing as how you just woke up?”

Posche held out his left hand, allowing Yami to gratefully accept the cup of coffee that resided within it.

Sitting in the office-like room once again, Yami sat in his chair sipping on his coffee. Posche sat in his large chair behind his desk, leaned down and opened a drawer, retrieving the bowl of ink that Yami had been feverishly infusing with his life essence.

“After you fell asleep, almost as soon as I took the bowl out of your hands by the way, I checked the content of this ink, and you have infused just enough. I suppose you’re ready to get it tattooed onto your skin, so long as you’re ready. Is the pattern still on your hand?”

Yami rolled up his sleeve, and nodded accordingly. Posche rose from his desk and began to walk over towards Yami, bowl of ink in hand.

“ It’ll be done in about an hour or two, so feel free to put in some earbuds or take a nap.”

As Posche sat the bowl of ink down onto the cart of supplies, he pulled a stool up to sit next to Yami. Loading the ink into a large cartridge, Posche loaded an ink gun with it. Turning the gun on, he quickly began tracing the pattern Yami had drawn. Feeling the pain, Yami gulped and clenched his right hand tightly.

“Sleep?!?! How the hell am I supposed to sleep?”