As they crept up behind a rock Ryuu quietly asked “What’s wrong?”

“I have a bad feeling about this, we need to get out of here now!” whispered Ryo anxiously  

“why? What’s going on?” asked Ryuu 

“Someone has been following us, and now we’re all alone out here.” Said Ryo quietly

As Ryuu looked around the pond he saw that everyone had already left, they were the last ones there.

As he looked around he said “Yeah, alright.” Then he extended his left arm and placed his hand on Ryo’s shoulder.

A black fog covered both of them, then a moment later they vanished.

Then almost immediately, they reappeared at the front gates of the academy.

When Ryo looked around he was baffled as he looked at Ryuu with wide eyes, he slowly narrowed his brows as he said “I’m not sure what you just did, but I’m sure glad you did it. Lets go!”

They then ran all the way back to the ‘C’ district where they finally stopped and rested on a pile of rocks.

Ryuu turned back and looked at the wall separating the ‘C’ district and ‘B’ district as he asked “Do you think we lost them?”

As Ryo took a deep breath he said “I sure hope so.”

Ryuu gave a slight chuckle as he eagerly asked “Did you see who was following us, or how many?” 

Ryo thought for a moment then shook his head as he said “I never got a good look, but I know there were at least two. They had been following us for a while. I first noticed them when we were sparing, but I thought it was just my imagination; but then they showed up to the pond and were hiding in the trees.” 

Ryuu furrowed his brows as he listened to Ryo speak, he started to think about who it could have been.

After walking and talking for a few more minutes, they both went their separate ways as they headed home for the night.

Just to be safe Ryuu walked to a alley between two buildings. When he was out of sight, he activated his shadowportation and teleported back to his house.

Once he was inside he decided it would be best if he stayed in the Ancestral Oracle Ring. So he grabbed all of his food and his futon, and then activated the inscription on the ring.

When he entered the space in the ring; he went to the library and set all of his stuff in a corner on a small table.

Then he sat down at the table and pulled out his fathers journal.

He remembered seeing something about separate shadow dimensions.

After flipping through pages for a while, he fnally came across a page titled ‘Pocket dimensions’.

He immediately started to read and memorize the page.

After seeing that this inscription had to be binded to an object, he got up and started gathering some scrolls and a few other items.

After searching for about an hour, he went back to the table and sat down. He then unrolled a blank scroll and grabbed a pen.

He dipped the pen into a bottle that was labeled ‘Platinum Sun, shadow beast blood’ 

He slowly pressed the tip of his pen to the paper as he wrote down the inscription pattern from his fathers journal. 

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Then he unrolled one of the scrolls titled ‘Soul Seals’ and started to copy down another inscription pattern. 

After finishing that one, he unrolled another scroll titled ‘Inscription locks and seals’ he then drew more inscriptions on the paper.

As he wrote them down they flowed into the paper and disappeared. 

Then just as he finished the final stroke, the other two inscription patterns started to emit a bright white light.

When the light faded there was only one inscription on the page.

Ryuu was amazed, the two inscriptions merged together forming a new and more complex inscription pattern array.

Ryuu then placed his right hand in the center of the array, and infused it with his qi.

As he injected his qi, the inscription pattern started to emit a metallic black glow and started to rapidly spin as it slowly crept up his hand.

When the inscription had fully formed on his hand and fore arm it gave off a bright white light and then disappeared into his skin.

A moment later he felt as if his entire soul realm had frozen over; then as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

But Ryuu could sense something new had formed in his soul realm. 

Ryuu’s lips curled into a smile as he thought to himself “I did it!” 

Thanks to the sealing inscription Ryuu was able to combine his fathers pocket dimension inscription and a soul sealing inscription, so he could bind the shadow dimension to his soul.

Ryuu lifted his right arm up and pointed his palm toward the pile of stuff on the table, a black circle formed in front of his palm and then covered the items in a black fog.

A moment later all of the items on the table vanished. Ryuu then created another shadow portal with his right hand, and then stepped into it.

When he stepped through he found himself in a completely black void.

Using his index he created a small flame and inspected the space.

The area was a lot bigger then he had imagined, After walking forward about fifteen feet he found his stuff in a corner. 

After inspecting his new pocket dimension he used his right hand to create another shadow portal and stepped back out.

After putting the scrolls and other things back, he went back to the corner of the library and activated the pocket dimension.

As Ryuu was about to step through he noticed something odd. 

Even though the pocket dimension is pitch black, he felt he could sense where everything was.

Using a shadow strand he pulled his futon out, unfolded it and laid down. 

As he lay on his back and starred at the ceiling his mind slowly drifted off, as he fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning

It was a chilly morning so Ryuu took his sweater out of his bag and pulled it on, as he walked toward the academy for his first day of class with master Yuri.