Orion’s POV?:

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar sight; I wasn’t in the log from last night or as a matter of fact I wasn’t even in the forest. I looked around to get a feel of the environment it was a room much like a bedroom but whose? “Yokai you there?” I asked.

No reply.

Was this a dream? I looked around and saw a mirror on a table with some notes and some drawings. The curiosity got the better of me and walked to the desk and peered into the mirror. “What the-?” I asked my voice was different.

When I looked in the mirror it wasn’t my normal face with black and white hair, but it was replaced by a boy of similar age maybe older than me with long snow white hair that reached past my chin tied in a ponytail it slowly faded into a light teal. My eyes were the same blue but instead of black pupils they were white diamonds. I was in a daze feeling my face and it wasn’t the only thing that changed, I’d gotten taller.

I looked at the note book on the desk and opened it. It was in a weird language almost like runes with weird shapes and letters. I sighed and put down the notebook and picked up some of the drawings and inspected them. They had weird beasts on them and had that same writing next to it like labels with arrows pointing at certain parts of the body of the beasts. When I got to the last drawing it was a thin short sword and its sheathe.

It looked a lot like Yokai’s sword, but it was different the blade wasn’t teal but a crimson red, the sheathe looked the same but maybe a bit longer. Confused, I put down the drawing. Where was I and is this still a dream? No this felt all too real to be a dream, but what is it then? Suddenly a knock on the door brought me out of thought. “Yokai you up? We have to go help the council again.” A girl’s voice that I never heard before but also felt familiar asked from behind the door.

Yokai? Is this Yokai’s memories? Am I Yokai? So many questions came flooding in. “Uh yeah coming.” I responded walking up to the door and opening it. Outside there was a girl with long crimson red hair tied into a ponytail, she had bright orange eyes that highlighted her hair.

“Summer?” I asked confused.

“What? Who’s that.” The mysterious girl asked. “Did you hit your head when you woke up?”

“Yeah, sorry everything is a little fuzzy right now. Who are you?” I hesitated.

“Do you seriously not remember me? It’s Cinder, the one and only?” Cinder asked.

“No sorry.” I replied.

“Hmm, lets go see Omoide to see if she can get your memories back.” Cinder said taking my hand.

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The bright light of the sun shone down through the cracks of the fallen log going directly into my eyes waking me from sleeping. My eyes shot open, and I looked into the reflection of my watch, and it was my face. My beautiful face, I caressed my face. ‘The fuck are you doing?’ Yokai asked.

I looked at the sword leaning up against the side of the tree log. “I had the weirdest dream, I was you, well I don’t know if it was actually you but, I have so many questions,” I told the sword.

‘So, you were a sword?’ Yokai confusion clearly in his voice.

 “No, I was you in the past with the long white and blue hair, and that girl. Cinder, who is Cinder?” I asked.

‘How do you know that name?’ He snapped. “I’m telling you, I was you I went back in time or forward. You were helping the council, or you were supposed to before I woke up.” I replied.

Yokai went silent for a minute before talking again. ‘How do you know.’ The pain was visible in his voice.

“I told you, I went into your memories, or something. I’m not entirely sure yet, but I need answers.” I told Yokai. “Who is Cinder?”

He was silent for a good minute or 2. ‘She was like a sister to me. The 6 of us were a family until we forced to work for that damned council.’ he finally spoke up. ‘After we started working for them, they betrayed us, posed as us an got us all sealed.’

“I see, I'll get back to training then.” I said looking down.

Drawing a line around 10 meters away from a tree I was resting by. I needed to master this technique in order to use mana in bursts, pouncing on the rabbits before they could react to the sound of the bell.

I would stand at the line that I’ve drawn and would run at the tree and stopping when the bell rings. I practiced this for a few hours before I finally stopped. My legs trembled as I struggled to walk to my camp site. I was making progress.

I went back to the fallen tree where I had set up camp on the way back, I grabbed some berries and mushrooms to eat before heading to bed. What was that dream last night? Would I have another one like that tonight? I wonder if Scarlet and Shiro are doing ok without me? Do they have enough to eat? Have they gone on any jobs? I trust Scarlet enough with my sister, so as long as they don’t go on any difficult missions, they should be fine right? I was lost in thought, but I must've fell asleep at some point because I woke up to the sound of running water and the sunlight going directly in my eyes.

I left and went back to the clearing. There was a dirt path from my line, halfway to the tree. For this to work I needed to utilize enough mana to instantaneously move at a speed where it won't shake the bell but fast enough to catch a rabbit, all while maintaining the effect of my new technique. With this and some sword training I could be unstoppable.

“Again” I muttered to myself as I walked back to the line when I heard the bell ring.

After a few hours of this, hours of hearing the bell ding, was starting to get on my nerves I grabbed the bell and started to crush the bell. ‘Don’t break that, you'll have to go get a new one.’

Releasing my grip on the bell I went back to the line I drew. I can make it about half way now, maybe a few more days and I can master this. After a few more attempts I wobbled my way back to camp and went to sleep.

After a few more days of repeating the same cycle, I finally reached the tree before the bell rang. My legs buckled from pain and exhaustion. “Yes! I finally did it!” I pumped my fists into the air in excitement.

I tried getting up, but my legs wouldn’t listen to me. After around ten or so minutes I finally got up, but it felt like my legs shattered. I got up using the sword sheathe to help me with my balance. Heh who would’ve thought I would use this as a walking stick.

I winced from the pain of taking each step. I finally got back to my camp and collapsed into my makeshift bed made out leaves. I'll test out what I learned in the morning with the rabbits after my legs are feeling better.

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When I awoke, I was in an unfamiliar scenery again was I in one of Yokai’s memories again? I grabbed my hair and brought it down to where I could see it, but no it was my ash black hair with the white highlights. Curious I started to look around the room, I was in a bed, the sheets were a soft red silk, and the blanket was a crimson red with black ends, and the bed frame was black. It seemed like the whole room was themed to be black and red. I looked towards the desk across the room. It was a nice desk, a dark brown with 3 drawers, it had a mirror, but the most confusing part was the wooden puppet.

The limbs of the puppet were mangled some turned in the opposite direction. What kind fucked up child? It was expressionless except for a single tear coming from its right eye and its left eye was blacked out.

Disturbed from the doll I got up and put it in one of the drawers. Out of sight out of mind. I looked around a bit more, I didn’t find anything in particular. When I looked under the bed, I found my sword, or Yokai’s sword, or is it Yokai. I don’t know.

Yokai you there? No response.

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I was pulled out of the dream when I felt something hit my stomach. When I woke up, I looked around, but nothing was there except the sword leaning against the wall of the log. I got up from the ground and I heard a thud. I looked towards the noise and there was a weird colored rock. There was a red, orange and yellow swirl pattern around the rock.

I picked up the rock, it was warm to the touch, it felt nice holding it. It was as if all my worries were gone, I felt relaxed, all the pain in my legs were gone. When I put the rock down the pain came back but it was manageable, I could walk without issue. I put the rock into my watch after a while and started to think of my next move.

 After a month of testing things out and trying to race the bell to the tree. I’m finally going to test some stuff out.

I grabbed some of the mushrooms and berries from my food supply and went into a clearing I put the food around 10 meters from where I stood and waited. I tried to use the technique my father taught me when he was around to help with hunting. I matched the input to the output of mana which makes it so my mana signature was invisible to even trained veterans.

It sniffed around for any sign of danger. After it decided there was none it started to eat the food. I took one deep breath before I infused mana into my legs. Flashback to when I was training flashed in my head.

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What am I doing wrong? I couldn’t get to the tree before the bell rang. At first, I thought it was because I wasn’t using internal mana but when I tried, I wasn’t making any progress.

After a while I carefully felt which muscles I was using with each step. When I took a step I payed attention to which muscles moved and tensed in order to move my leg. First were my calves they would tense up then my quadriceps and then finally my hamstrings. They all tensed in the order. Maybe if I did something with this.

I needed to imbue mana into my muscles in the right order to move me instantaneously from a standing position. I needed to figure out the right timing and the right amount of mana to mimic the effects of moving them mechanically. After about a day or two I finally figured out the timing and the right amount of mana. I could instantly clear around 10 meters in a single step.

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I imagined the muscles and focused on the rabbit. I imbued mana into the muscles in order to move in an instant. The scenery flashed behind me as I took a step toward the rabbit, I reached out my hand and grabbed it by the ears before it couldn’t even react. “Yes!” I threw my hands in the air in excitement.

Atlas’ Pov:

“So, this is what he was doing for the past month.” I said quietly to myself.

After he disappeared, I went to talk to Kaza, and he said he left to train but was this training? For the past 30 minutes he’s been standing still, I can’t sense any mana from him. Usually, I could sense even the smallest amount of mana either being absorbed or leaving their body. But from him nothing, what has he been doing for the past month?

I’ve settled down in a tree about 30 meters from him hiding my presence so he wouldn’t find out I've been watching him. After another few minutes or so a sonar rabbit came into view. It sniffed carefully around for danger then went to eating the pile of berries and mushrooms around 10 meters in front of Karma, I knew their eyesight was bad, but they should still be able sense him.

After about a few seconds of Karma staring at the rabbit he disappeared from where he was standing and suddenly, he was at the rabbit holding it by the ears. “Yes! Fucking finally.” He yelled raising his fists in the air.

What did he just do? There was no way he didn’t use mana, but I couldn’t sense anything from him. After a while of thinking I chuckled to myself. “You have one hell of a son Yuno.” I looked up.