This took a lot longer than expected so sorry for that, I promise the next chapter shall be released soon as it's mostly finished now.

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“Rise and shine sleeping beauty,” an unfamiliar voice roused me from my slumber.

“Are you up?” She called again, naturally aware of the answer before hand but still choosing to probe.

“Yes,” I affirmed blandly causing her to huff in displeasure.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine.”

“Are you in pain?”

“No.”

“How do you feel?”

“You alread-”

“I know that I’ve asked you this question before and I’m sure you know why I’m asking you again.” She prompted, a speck of amusement audible in her voice.

I didn’t respond. I had nothing to say to her, I was already sick of going through the motions of meeting someone only for them to hate me later. In a moment of weakness I let out a sigh.

“You know, you’re a surprisingly bad liar,” she chuckled matter of factly, in any other circumstance I may have become upset by someone intentionally prodding me like this, yet when this unknown woman was the culprit I could hardly muster the effort to be annoyed.

“Are you scared of opening up to me?” She cooed softly, unbeknownst to me at the time a devilish smile adorned her lips thoroughly contrasting the somberness of her voice. Since I had yet to even look at her there was no harm in cracking a smile,though thinking back to it even if I were looking it's unlikely that would have been a deterrent to her.

“Scared?” The question hung in my mind for a time as I contemplated the thought, rolling the notion around the same way a wine connoisseur would appreciate the flavor of a product. Was I scared? Not that I could tell, but that could be my pride talking, it could be that some instinct inside of me is telling me not to trust another one of these foxes especially seeing how trusting one of them has never gotten me anything remotely better than nearly mauled to death via bear.

“Well don’t worry about it,” she giggled casually completely breaking off the tension that had begun to skulk its way into my thoughts.

“What do you want,” I sighed in defeat.

“When I was younger I wanted to travel, to go any and everywhere I please.” She answered glibly.

“That...nevermind… What do you want with me, are you my next teacher here to tell me it's time for my training immediately after I wake up?” I stressed this time letting out far more exasperation than I would have preferred.

“You think what that pup Tera and that senile loli have been putting you through is training?” Hearing my question the mysterious woman began to roar with laughter.

I shot a glare at her.

“What!” Her eyes rebuked me, “you can’t seriously believe that you’ll get any serious training done when the people doing the so-called ‘training’ aren’t even sure if they’re going to kill you yet. You’re lucky that you’re Umi’s son, the child of the village’s own saintess is an impossibly hard to shake position.”

“Saintess?” I questioned immediately, “What is a saintess?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, just how little do you know?” She started, her eyes glowing with white hot traces of righteous indignation. With a leap she rose up seemingly intent on bringing justice to my “teachers.”

“It's okay miss. If I just keep listening to what they say I’ll become powerful enough to live on my own accord.” The words were spoken flatly, as if even I didn’t believe in their validity.

Her eyes once more smoldered with rage, blazing incomparably brighter than before, her entire countenance swiftly turning a madder red.

“I refuse to let you stay with them any longer, a kid like you should be dreaming of the world, not cooped up in a smarmy village like this chained down by more invisible chains than he can likely count.” Her fingers were claws on my shoulders, even though she had hooked onto me it didn’t hurt, what did hurt however was her gaze. She looked at me as if I were a bird locked in a cage, or a starved animal at a zoo, nothing but endless pity.

If my previous life prepared me for anything then it was without a doubt, knowing how to deal with negativity. Be it self-abdication, the collapsing moral integrity of one’s peers, or the gazes of contempt from people based purely on one’s physical ability, or rather in my case it has always been my body's inability.

I may be crippled, both now and in the past, but I have my pride.

“I’ll be your teacher, that’s how it was supposed to be.” A hazy pink aura flushes out from the mysterious woman’s body.

“No.”