Six days - what felt like an eternity to Ren-Shai since being trapped in such a small body. However, talking with Sullivan did bring a few thoughts to Ren-Shai's mind. If his body peaked and restored itself every new day, then he could do something no other humans were capable of. Ren-Shai could begin training his frail form only to have the next day shape and twist his gains to be non-harmful to his growth or development. Ren-Shai knew many of the human fantasies called such a thing Cultivation, but there was one main reason he mocked it. Cultivation was the refining of the spirit and made manifest in flesh. Humans could not refine their spirit. However, Ren-Shai was a unique case. Ren-Shai's essence was already perfect and his body was too frail to manifest it.

  After Tyler's parents had taken him home from the clinic, Ren-Shai was true to his word. Ren-Shai began calling Thomas his father and Mary his mother. Biologically speaking, that was correct, so he would not be lying to them. As for Sasha, he did his best to tolerate a four year old and to give her some form of time. Seeing the joy on Mary and Thomas's face confused Ren-Shai as to how such small gestures could make such a difference.

  For the first time, he had gotten to see what the big deal about food was. Despite the taste being pleasant, it really did nothing for him. It wouldn't provide him with any more or less energy. Ren-shai's essence was the equivalent of a nuclear reactor in a calculator that wasn't exploding for some reason. For him, that meant several things. His body would never need food to stay alive, nor would it need water, nor would he ever grow tired. That was something, likely, his brothers had just found out about as well. The human experience was going to be slightly marred without the need for either, but there was always the next experience to try fixing it. All of this combined meant that when night fell, Ren-Shai stepped out of the small abode his parents called a home - a mobile home, he did believe it to be called.

  "Right, let me think of the best combat styles and conditioning these mortals have invented," Ren-Shai said to himself as he walked over toward a tree. "Right. Speed, power, flexibility, and reactions. Hardened bones, muscles soft when relaxed, yet like metal when flexed," he murmured, doing the calculations in his head. After his calculations finished, Ren-Shai's center of gravity lowered as he took a kickboxer's lower stance, combined with Muay Thai fighter's upper stance. "I do believe my brothers would do the equivalent of laughing at having to make such an unnatural pose in order to demonstrate one's powers," he theorized to himself. As he thought about it more, his body let loose an involuntary laugh. "That was me?" he asked in confusion.

  The sound of a crack was heard as Ren-Shai struck the tree. It was a simultaneous crack. The bark of the tree broke off - as well as his right hand's middle knuckle breaking. Ren-Shai, of course, could ignore the pain considering his willpower. He simply switched to another knuckle. After nine more cracks, his hands were almost useless. Ren-Shai bent his fingers in half and took turns breaking each individual center joint of his fingers and did so with the tips. "Two hours until the body resets," he said to himself as he swung a tiny forearm into the tree. Crack. Crack. The sounds of cracking could be heard until Ren-Shai's small body couldn't stand and he was left laying in the dirt of the nearby woods to his parents' house.

  "Are you serious?" Ren-Shai asked. Five minutes until his reset. While he couldn't see it, some of the lessers (see Chapter 4) had tried to curse him with bad luck. When they found they could not curse him, they could curse his path to attract danger. That danger was the shape of a rattlesnake crawling toward him. That and laying in a pile of red ants that his willpower would have never let him feel the sting of. A single bite caused searing pain to travel through Ren-Shai's body, which he could tolerate. It was the body's involuntary reactions that caused him fury. For the first time, the Supreme had felt fury. Wrath. Anger. The lack of control over something that was supposed to be his. At the verge of death, the clock struck twelve.

  There were many things a five year old should have been seen as. There were many things a five year old should not have been seen as. When Ren-Shai's bones reforged and his muscles, ligaments, and joints adapted to have a power to utilize them - the survival instinct of the snake would have gambled on the last option as what it was witnessing. Ren-Shai's reforging body became immune to the venom of the ants and snake. Ren-Shai reached down, grabbing the creature that dared strike at his most vulnerable. Ren-Shais' first true act of emotion was enacted - rage and revenge. He gripped the snake with a power a five year old should never have had, causing its head to pop off. Courtesy of the snake's bite and the ants' torments, his skin was now so durable even needles could not pierce it.

  "I suppose I should be grateful to you lesser beings. You have made this body become more than it should ever be for its age. However, for what you've done to me, you will not be suffered to continue existing in my presence," Ren-Shai said as he threw the snake's corpse into the forest near the tree. He reached down to the head and picked it up. The natural reactions left in it caused it to try and bite him again, only for its fang to break off. Ren-Shai took the fang and threw the head into the forest.

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  "A memento, I do believe. What humans take to signify their victories. I see their desire to retain such memories now. Overcoming a foe who could have taken everything from them," Ren-Shai said as he gripped the fang in his hand and strode back toward the mobile home. Ren-Shai made his way back to his small bed and laid down, gripping the snake fang in his palm tightly, until he saw four year old Sasha looking at him.

  "I tell mom and dad you sneak out when they wake up," she said, frowning.

  "Why?" Ren-Shai asked her.

  "You no bring me," Sasha said, pouting.

  "If you want to come, you can just ask next time. Okay?" Ren-Shai asked. Sasha's cheeks puffed out as she frowned angrily, thought, and thought. To a four year old, seeing Tyler get scolded or playing with her older brother was a hard choice.

  "Fiiiine. But you give me a piece of your bacon in morning," she said.

  "Deal," Ren-Shai said. A human toddler was a better negotiator than a human physician. Truly, humans were the most unique species in all of the Three's Creation - Ren-Shai firmly believed this now.

  The next day was simple. Trying a bath, eating breakfast, and his mother attempting to get him to study the thing humans called 'homework' for a first grader. If her son was going to be a genius, of course he'd have to study. Ren-Shai despised this. This was the equivalent of making a nuclear physicist study grade-school math for hours. Regardless, courtesy of them sharing their meager resources with him, Ren-Shai did so.

  When night fell, Ren-Shai was true to his word and woke up Sasha. The pair snuck out and Sasha sat quietly as Ren-Shai made his way to the same tree he had the night before. Luckily for Ren-Shai, the refinement from the morning of that day had increased the power capacity of his new body. Luckily for Sasha - the refinement from the morning of that day had caused Ren-Shai's power to surge enough to break the curse of bad luck which may have attracted an animal to attack him or her.

  This was the night Ren-Shai's bones would no longer break. He would be cracking his bones, but no longer cleanly shattering or breaking them as he began to use the tree like a punching and kicking bag. Sasha seemed amazed at how strong her big brother is and clapped for him.

  "Big brother is a superhero!" she said.

  "I am cultivating," Ren-Shai replied. Of course, midnight came and refined his body, correcting the errors in his training and any damage they would have done to his growing body. A golden glow surrounded him as Sasha clapped.

  "Brother is like the flying blonde hair lady!" Sasha said, clapping.

  "I'm an immortal being and I saw that Revengers comic (the translation being somewhat lost to his godly language). That character was, probably, the only thing I have actively reviled in my existence for being so nonsensical," Ren-Shai replied. Sasha seemed very confused, not understanding the big words.

  "Brother smart like Bulk-man person," she said, puffing her cheeks out.

  "Your brother is a god in mortal flesh. I am smarter than that," Ren-Shai said. "Let's go back inside before you get sick," Ren-Shai told her. Ren-Shai strode toward Sasha and looked down at her. Something so frail, so dumb, and useless at its age. However, Ren-Shai did not feel pity for it. Ren-Shai bent down and picked her up as Tyler's father did for him at the doctor's office. Ren-Shai actually felt like he cared about this small creature - like he should protect it. It only wanted nothing more than to stand beside him and cheer on what it thought was her older brother who was becoming better. "So simple, yet… so pure and direct are its intentions. No alternative motives," Ren-Shai said.

  "Big words again," Sasha said, pouting as Ren-Shai carried her inside and laid her in her little bed. Ren-Shai returned to his bed and laid down, closing his eyes. While he didn't need to sleep, the passing of time felt quite pleasant. As he did so, he felt something latch onto his arm. Ren-Shai opened his eyes and saw Sasha there.

  "Why are you in my bed and not your own? You have more room," he said.

  "Big brother is a superhero. No bad dreams can get me," she said. Ren-Shai closed his eyes again, having another first. A smile.

  Four days passed much like the same until Ren-Shai was standing at a road, waiting for his school bus. Ren-Shai sat in the back of the bus, away from the screaming, wailing children - mostly so he wouldn't have the urge to trip them or slap them behind the head to silence them for assaulting his senses.

  When the bus made it to school, Ren-Shai walked to where his class was supposed to be when the proper bells rang. With Tyler's memories, he found it easy to avoid Tyler's old friends so he wouldn't have to explain everything to them. Ren-Shai did not know, however, that Tyler's parents had informed his friends' parents of the issue that had happened. The lack of omniscience was something Ren-Shai was not used to.

  Class began and Ren-Shai made his way to where he knew Tyler's seat was. Ren-Shai gave the teacher about ten percent of his attention until one small event happened. Ren-Shai's attention switched to one hundred as his eyes flashed gold as his fight or flight was activated. The sights of various golden, silver, and gray threads all around him were briefly in his vision as his precognition's powers kicked in. All it took were these simple words.

  "Meet our new student, Anna Young," the teacher said as a five year old girl with a crutch and a cast hobbled into the room.

  "Well-played, Crow," Ren-Shai said out loud, causing the entire class to look at him. Ren-Shai openly clapped, looking dead out of the window - with his precognition active, he saw a familiar pair of pitch black eyes on a pale face looking at him with a smirk from behind the window.

  "Well-played, indeed, Anomaly, let's see how you handle responsibility for your little prank," it said, flapping its wings as it flew back to the heavens.

  Ren-Shai looked at the class - and one, absolutely stunned little girl who recognized him immediately. "I swear, I'm going to disintegrate him for this inconvenience," Ren-Shai growled.