The inside of the cave was musty, cold, and damp. Yami’s footsteps echoed as he carefully walked in the cave. He tripped over a root in the ground, causing him to splash into a puddle of mud. Yami took off his sweater and wiped his face off with his undershirt.

“Looks like this cave heads down,” Yami noted.

“Indeed,” the voice acknowledged. “They made me stay deep in this cave so that they wouldn't have to watch me.”

“Why would they have to do that in the first place?”

…

Yami was met with a silence that seemed more fearful than an answer could've been.

“In any case, I'm going out od my way to come down here, could you at least tell me who you are and what I'm doing?”

“That answer,” the voice began, “is not an easy one. You may call me Akahishi. I am a very old person, almost as old as the Jinsei no Hogo goes back. In fact, I would go as far to say I am about two centuries younger than you. That being said, I do not reincarnate like you do. I am one, and I am all.”

Yami shook his head.

“That doesn't make any sense,” Yami said. “I'm only 14! And what's this about reincarnation? You must be insane.”

The voice chuckled.

“So, that failure of a Pǔbiàn Fǎnxiǎng knows what you are, is aware of the risk, and STILL doesn't teach you about yourself? What a fool!”

A voice of confusion came from Yami.

“What do you mean ‘he knew’? You don't know a damn thing about me OR him!”

Akahishi chuckled.

“I know a lot more than you may think. Since a few months ago, I have been learning about your life. I would venture to guess I could explain your heritage far better than him, but I suppose I will keep that information for myself.”

“Tell me. Now.”

Akahishi’s mouth grinned.

“Not until you find MY heritage. Now, go forth and keep exploring.”

Using his phone for a flashlight, Yami continued to pace himself deeper into the cave. The dripping of the water had stopped, and it seemed as though the air itself did not move. Suddenly, the tunnel ended into a small hole, hardly large enough for Yami to fit through.

“Yes,” Akahishi said. “I can sense it from here. Quickly, follow that hole!”

Yami gulped in anticipation.

“This better be worth it.”

Yami slowly inched himself into the hole. The length of his arms was just enough to pull him forward. As he did so, the hole seemed to become larger. After ten minutes of dragging himself, Yami saw a sliver of light produced from something other than his phone. Yami continued to pull himself toward the light, but he now had enough space to army crawl, significantly increasing the rate of which he moved.

“Yes. This is where I’ve slept.”

Blue light penetrated from the walls of the room which Yami had just flung himself into. Falling on the ground, Yami picked himself back up. The blue light appeared to be originating from gel orbs inside the wall. He paused to take in what he was seeing.

“Yes, yes, it is very amazing the first time you see it, but we really must be going.”

Yami walked towards a small passage that seemed to lead to another room. The gravel floor seemed to match the color of the moss covered walls. The air inside this room was moving in the direction of the passage entrance. Yami closed his eyes as he entered, and as he felt that the passage end, he opened them.

What he saw was beautiful. A small rock staircase led to a pedestal which sat in the middle of this dome room. The blue resonated in this room as well, except it was much stronger, and Yami nearly shut his eyes from the brightness.

“I am getting shivers just knowing it is this close,” Akahishi remarked. “Go now. Up to the container of my heart.”

Yami walked up the staircase and reached the pedestal. A wooden box with an ancient language engraved on it sat before him.

“Akahishi, what does that say?”

“Do not open. You know what you have to do.”

Yami grabbed the box and lifted the lid. Inside resided a large red crystal that sat on a purple cushion. Yami grabbed the crystal and inspected it in the palm of his hand.

“Thank you, Yami. You made my many years of waiting finally come to an end.”

Yami jumped upright in his bed. Sweat dripped from his forehead. It was 3:30 am, and not a single noise could be heard.

“...hello? Akahishi?”

Yami was met with no response.

Posche knocked on the front door of Yami’s house at 8:30 am. He was greeted by Yami’s father.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Hello, Mr. Shinpai. I am Phil Posche, your son's teacher. I was planning on meeting with him today to help him with his courses he is going to be taking this coming school year?”

“Hmm,” Yami’s father grunted. “You can have him. Lazy fucker is probably still sleeping.”

Yami came out of his room with bags under his eyes. His father looked down on him.

“Mr. Posche is taking you to study. Have fun.”

Yami yawned and waved his hand as he walked out of the house with Posche.

“Well,” Posche began, “Your father truly made a first impression.”

“Yup,” Yami replied. “He really is one of a kind. I don’t think anyone can be as much as an ass as he can be.”

Posche placed a stern look on his face.

“So he’s the one. The one who drove you to the edge.”

“It would be ignorant of me to say he was the sole cause, but he was definitely a factor.”

Posche grinned.

“Well, to lighten up the mood, I suppose I’ll tell you our plans for today!”

“Oh boy, let me guess, more lectures?”

“Nope, today we have a two guest teachers. I believe you have already met them both as well!”

As Posche opened the door, Yami’s jaw almost hit the ground. Standing in the meadow was a boy Yami’s age, wearing a black hoodie and jeans. His short, blond hair gifted his central heterochromia eyes a spotlight on his face.

“Yo, Yami! How’s it hanging?”

“S-S-S-Shitto?!?! WHy the hell are you here?!?!”

Posche smiled.

“He is one of your teachers today!”

“Wait, Shitto… You tried to, well…”

“Yup, and so did you, so I guess I won’t beat your ass for it!”

“How long ago?”

“A couple of years before I met you. Though, I guess I didn’t attempt to harness my abilities until last year.”

“Wait, so if you are one of my teachers, then who is my other?”

Posche looked around.

“Good question. Where is she?”

“I have no clue,” Shitto shrugged.

Posche shook his head.

“I would prefer that we didn’t start lessons until she arrived, but I guess we can at least get through the lecture first.”

“Alright ya little punk,” Shitto said, pointing at Yami. “Sit your ass down and prepare to be educated!”

“So what exactly am I going to be learning?”

“Well,” Posche began, “Your friend, Shitto, happens to have an offensive Sirushi Inochi, which you also have.”

“That’s right, friend-o! I have a Sirushi Inochi that allows me to manipulate my life essence to create an amazing attack that can destroy any being near me!”

“Mr. P, is he serious,” Yami asked?

Shitto glared at Yami.

“I do not appreciate your sarcasm, Mr. Shinpai. Do not make me send you to the principal's office.”

“Shitto,” Posche interrupted. “How about we carry on with the lesson and stop the whole charade you’re putting on right now.”

Shitto shrugged.

“Fine, let’s get started. Alright Yami, let me see that mark of yours.”

Yami held out his hand towards Shitto. Shitto inspected it.

“Phil already gave me the rundown on your situation. So your mark removed the triangles and replaced the square with a perfect circle?”

“Don’t call me Phil you little shit!”

“Anyways,” Yami replied. “Ya, that’s what happened.”

“Muy interesante. You ever try running life essence through it? Not like Transparency, just like, using it?”

“Well, there was one time from when I just got my marking. I tried to use Transparency but instead activated it. I couldn’t move a muscle due to the pain I was feeling. Mr. P had to come save me.”

“Sounds like soul deficiency to me. You basically used more life essence than you had, causing your body to go into shock. Lemme guess, Phil gave you some kind of pill?”

“You hit the nail on the head, dude.”

“Judging from how much life essence I can feel resonating from you, your Sirushi Inochi likely uses a lot of life essence. Let’s see how large your soul is right now.”

Shitto held up a piece of paper.

“Really, Shitto? We’re doing math?”

“Not quite right, but good guess! This, my friend, is no ordinary piece of paper. This paper is produced from the trees specifically from the forest near this area. You see, they love to feed off of life essence, and the color of its bark shows how much life essence it has. So if you temporarily connect it to your soul, you can roughly judge how much life essence you have. Here!”

Shitto passed the paper to Yami.

“If the paper turns violet, you have a below average amount of life essence. If it turns blue or green, it is the average amount a person has. Yellow and orange shows high amounts of life essence.”

Yami gripped the paper with his right hand. He began to channel some life essence into the paper. The paper quickly turn from a purple, to blue to green, yellow, orange, and then red. Shitto gasped and stole the paper from Yami. It quickly turned back to white.

“There’s no way… That level of life essence is only attainable by gods! Yami! Try again!”

Yami gripped the paper once again, only this time in his left hand. He began to channel his life essence, and this time it only changed to a green color. Shitto sighed in relief.

“Must’ve held it the wrong way the first time. Well, you must have a sufficient amount of life essence to use your Sirushi Inochi, it’s just a matter of determining how to use it.”

“What do you mean, Shitto? I thought you already knew what I had to do!”

“Nope, but I’ve studied so much about offensive Sirushi Inochi, I consider myself an expert. Let’s start with your circle. It started as a square, right?”

Yami nodded.

“Squares typically indicate that it is a creation type ability. Luckily, Mine is a creation type as well, so that part will be easy. As far as your triangles go, they can be anything. Typically they are just enhancers or modifiers of the base creation, and, once again, you are lucky that you have me. Mine only has one triangle, though, so the other three can be anything.”

“Let’s get started then,” Yami said.

“Whoa there stud. You need to chill out. We should go over everything first. Yo, Phil! You bring that book?”

Posche threw the book at Shitto, hitting him square in the face.

“Here it is. Now stop calling me Phil!”

“Thanks, pal! Alrighty, let’s see here…” Shitto flipped through the pages. Finding a section labelled “Shape Creation,” Shitto handed Yami the book.

“What exactly am I looking at?”

“Shape Creation. This is the first part of your Sirushi Inochi, and arguably the most important part. Shape creation is the foundation of your technique, and despite it being a shape, there is no telling what shape it may be. For example, my technique works like this.”

Gripping his right forearm revealed Shitto’s Sirushi Inochi on the palm of his hand.

“Ken!”

A purple substance poured itself from Shitto’s hand. The speed at which is climbed up itself was remarkable, but what was even more remarkable than that was what it created.

“Pretty dope, huh.”

A large purple sword was gripped by Shitto. Its short handle did not match the length of the blade, which was serrated the entire length of the blade.

“Whoa,” Yami exclaimed! “That at least looks cool, but is it actually effective?”

“Does your grocery store carry tree saplings?”

…

“Uh, what?”

Shitto sighed in frustration.

“Just shut up and watch!”

Shitto grabbed a branch of a tree and broke it off. The inside of the tree turned yellow. Shitto threw the branch into the air, and in a flurry of swings, he attacked the branch. The blur of purple assured Yami that Shitto truly was a master of his art. While Yami could not see the devastation happening before him, he heard the thumping of the sword against the branch. Shitto swung his sword at the ground, causing dust to fly up from the speed of the blade. The branch, which was still falling, hit the ground and shattered into pieces.

“Well, well, well, Yami. Need to ask Phil if I know what I’m talking about again?”

Yami grinned.

“Nah, you win this one.”

A girl was just waking up. He sat up in her bed. She wore only a loose top and panties. Her red hair was the only color in her dark room.

“I guess I’m late,” she thought to herself. “Better hurry up before Posche gets mad.”

Walking into her bathroom, she turned on the shower. Removing her clothes, she stepped into the shower. The hot water splashed on her smooth skin, appearing to roll off like it hit marble. The steam fogged up the mirror which showed her outfit, a yellow t-shirt and jean shorts. As he brushed her teeth in the shower, she gargled her mouth out with the water from the shower head and turned off the shower. As she walked out of her apartment, she locked her door. Her fingernails were painted a shiny red, and her hands looked as soft as feathers. As she walked down the road towards the park, her legs flexed with her movement. Her legs were not too muscular, but were far from weak.

Reaching the park, he found a door that led to the girls bathroom. She gently touched her right hand's fingertips against it and sent a small amount of life essence into it.

“At least Posche was thoughtful enough to put this entrance relatively close to my apartment rather than making me walk to his house everyday. Rumors may have started to be spread about me and him, maybe for the sake of getting grades.”

He pushed the door open, revealing the meadow. She saw Yami and Shitto in the distance, looking at the book and laughing. Posche laid next to the entrance on his hammock. He looked up from his book.

“Ah, so you’ve finally made it. How nice of you to show up. We’ve been postponing his training for nearly an hour now. You’re lucky that Shitto is such a smooth talker.”

Her expression didn’t change in the slightest.

“Does he know I’m his second teacher?”

Posche shook his head.

“Nope. I was going to let you introduce yourself.”

The girl sighed.

“Fine.”

She walked towards Yami and Shitto. Shitto looked over and smiled.

“Hey! Nice of you to finally show!”

“My second teacher?!?!”

Yami looked over his shoulder.

In the middle of the meadow stood Shippai.