Raion’s eyes slowly opened. His body felt heavy and his breathing was irregular. His eyes widened to see a young woman grinding up some leaves and herbs.

“Where am I?” Raion mumbled as he slowly tried to get up.

“Don’t move.” The young woman turned around. She had short purple hair. Her charm point was her long legs. She had one of the crossed over the other. She was wearing a long white lab coat.

Raion laid back down on his back.

“Who are you?”

“Collette.” She started preparing the medicine. The concoction she was mixing up was green and purple with a really pungent stench being emitted from the bowl.

“Uhh...what are you going to with that?” Raion’s face was pale with anticipation.

“This? Oh don’t worry too much about it.” Collette took out a big spoon and made her way towards Raion.

“Please don’t...”

“Open wide.”

From the outside of the room, a loud scream was heard then came silence. Collette opened the door and made her way outside towards Doriama and Umashiro.

“Will he be ready by this evening?” Doriama paced back and forth.

“Mhmm, it’ll be better if he rests for a whole day, but yes his body will be ready for this evening.”

“Good.”

Raion woke up once again in the same room.

“Damn, I feel like I’ve just been through hell twice and back.” He slowly got up from the bed and felt his body lighter than ever. He felt around his body to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. He looked down at his chest and saw the Rooster’s Mark. “So this is it...”

He moved his arms and legs off the bed and did some stretches to get his limbs warmed up. “Mhm, I’m feeling a lot better now.”

Doriama opened the door and walked into the room to see Raion stretching.

“Good to see you up, let’s get started.”

“What. So soon?”

“Yep we don’t have time to waste.”

Doriama and Raion went out towards the open fields. Umashiro was already there waiting for them.

“Alright Raion,” Doriama stood in front of him. “There’s good news and bad news. The good news is you have successfully gotten the mark. Bad news is, it’s not compatible with you.”

“So what does that exactly mean?” Raion looked confused.

“It’s like uhh....Umashiro you explain it.”

Umashiro sighed.

“Well, your body or vessel is able to hold energy. Normally the more you train your body the more energy your body can hold. What a compatible mark does, is it allows the body to bypass its limit and exert more energy than it can hold. Now, an incompatible mark eats away at your energy.”

Raion had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“For example think of your body like a glass of water. The glass is your body and the water is your energy. The more you train the bigger the glass gets and the more water it holds. Now with the compatible mark, you’re essentially adding an extension to your glass making you hold more water for a limited time. Now with that same visual, an incompatible mark pretty much cuts your glass in half.”

“Wait so you’re saying I’ve lost half of my energy?”

“Not necessarily. You still have the same amount of energy, but you lose it twice as fast, meaning you can’t sustain your energy for a long period of time. So let’s say before you can use your energy at 100% for twenty minutes. Now with the incompatible mark, you can only use your energy at 100% for ten minutes now. On the other hand a compatible mark will boost your energy at 150% or even 200% for ten minutes, depending on how compatible you are with the mark.”

“So that means...”

Doriama stepped in.

“That means right off the bat you have a handicap going into the tournament Raion.”

Raion sighed.

“Things don’t come easy huh”

Doriama laughed.

“Nope, but we’re here to teach you how to handle your incompatible mark. It’s not always a bad thing you know.”

Raion tilted his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, an incompatible mark teaches you how to sustain your energy for a longer period of time. You’ll be able to fully control your energy and not have any wasted output.”

Raion started stretching again.

“Well no time to be depressed, let’s do this.”

Doriama smiled.

“Good let’s begin.”

END