IOU

"Yeah dad I'm right here," I said walking up to the second box. "It's time for you to open your real present," my dad said while leading me towards another box with a golden ribbon on top of it. There were about 20 cameras on me, with everyone trying to get the best angel. Honestly, it was nerve-racking, and the fact that my stomach felt like it was going to burst didn't help at all.

The moment I placed my hand on the ribbon. Everyone started taking pictures, an endless array of white lights damn near blinded me. I have to get this over with quickly" I thought while pulling the ribbon off. What I saw was a motorcycle with a grey tank area, the other parts were black. Written on the grey portion of the bike said Yamaha XSR700. The bike was honestly beautiful everything about it seemed masculine.

But damn it's like my heart won't allow me to care about anything other than qi. but I know how important this is to them, so I have to play along. "holy shit" I shouted going through the motions, pretending to be excited and amazed.

While I am grateful it's not something id say comes anywhere near the importance of qi. watch your language Alex" my mother said looking up from her camera. Sorry mom" I said. Alex!" said Andrew who was walking out of the house. He had an all-black leather jacket in his hands. His normal smile overly excited smile, you've got to complete the outfit" he hands me the leather jacket.

"You've all outdone yourselves. This is more than I deserve" I said with a big smile on my face, barely able to move around. Don't get too excited Alexander. Now that you have a job your going to start making money don't forget how much you owe me" a voice that I hardly recognized shouted out. This was followed by more people making the same joke, each person had a handwritten IOU on pieces of paper and handed them to me. Each one had names and dates written on them, with a specific amount of money. "This is going to be one of those long-running jokes huh," I thought while putting the ones I had in my pocket.

The party rages on for about 4 more hours, no longer really about me. Now just a gathering of family and friends. I spent most of the party trying to keep the qi inside of me from overflowing. That was until Mercia walked over to me tapping me on the shoulder. "Alexander can we talk?" she said, in a quiet shy voice. "Yeah sure but just call me Alex, Alexander sound too formal," I said getting up and following her out of the house.

"What'd you want to talk about?" I said in a croaky voice. Flinching from the pain of suddenly getting up.

"why'd you ask me if I had a boyfriend? And don't lie be honest with me." Mercia said in a high-pitched honeyed voice. That honestly made me forget all about the pain I was in for some time. Shit this is it" I yelled in my head.

I think you're beautiful and would love to get to know you". Even though I said this with no one else around I still felt overly awkward, and squeamish. My voice sounded shrill and rough. We stood there for some time until my mother called me over. Mercia's face was flushed red especially around her cheeks.

"Mercia lets go, your dads here to pick us up" Sherley shouted. When I looked over, I saw Sherley standing by an all-gold Lamborghini Urus. The person who got out had an aura that, dominated everything it came into contact with. With it came into contact with me, it felt as though all aspects of my body were examined and pried opened. He has to be one of those martial artists" I thought starring at the figure walking towards my father. "Thank you for taking care of my daughter and niece."

His voice sounded monstrous, a plane sounding voice with everything being said in a matter of fact type way. He had the same pale ghostly skin as Mercia, but his aura was darker and a lot more suppressing. With short whitish-grey hair, with a long beard of similar color. Standing just slightly shorter than my father who was about 6'9.

"Sorry I have to go, but here," Mercia said handing me a piece of paper, before running off red-faced and hair flowing wildly. She ran over to her father and tugged on his arm. Let's go dad" she said. Whys your face so red. Are you alright" he said while looking over in my direction. "Alright let's go. Sorry for my daughter's inappropriate behavior. Timothy, it was a pleasure meeting you. But I was wondering is that your son over there."

He said looking in my direction. Honestly, there was no way I'd get any closer to him than this. "Yeah, that's my boy, Alexander… and you as well if you ever need anything don't be a stranger" my dad said shaking hands with Mercia's father. Both him and Mercia got in the car shortly afterwords and drove off.

"That was It" I said lightly under my breath, unable to stop sweating, "that was a martial artist" I nearly yelled out. So many questions ran through my head "if he's a martial artist does that mean Mercia and Sherley both are as well?" I thought while starring at the ground. "A family of martial artist," I thought now realizing that the book did make reference to clans and different martial art groups…. "Wait that means he knows I'm in the core creation stage, after all, he'd have to see as he's already gone through the qi sensing stage". I thought scratching my head.

"A come here" my father shouted. "Yeah I'm coming," I said putting the piece of paper Mercia gave me in my pocket. After putting on my best impression of a person not seething in pain and walking toward my father who was standing near the bike. With a helmet in his hand. Its time A" he said tossing the helmet to me.

Dad, I haven't ridden a proper motorcycle before. I really don't know what to do" I said with a nervous look on my face. "Sure, you have, it's the same as riding a dirt bike. And you've always been alright at that." He said before taking the Yamaha out of the garage.

"Alright here goes nothing," I thought while getting on the bike. Helmet on check, start bike check. Alright, everything so far has been good. After some warmups, which really only consisted of going really slow down the road. I decided that I had the hang of this and amped the speed. My mother's loud cheering filled the entire neighborhood, I could see some of Andrews's neighbors come out to see what all the noise was about.

The feeling of support was amazing. I could feel every hole in the cracked cement, which severed to make everything feel more real. This went on for just about 30 minutes before everyone started heading home. After getting their fill of pictures.

I was allowed to drive home by myself which was not what my mother wanted but I convinced her with the help of my father and Andrew. When we got home, I asked my dad about tutoring with Sherley. He said she had something to do and wouldn't be coming today. To which I promptly asked if I could go to the cabin.

The drive to the cabin was honestly peaceful, the endless rows of people who smiled and whistled at me made everything feel welcoming. I even drove by Mercia's house. Wanting to show her how cool I was, riding on my brand-new bike. But she wasn't home which really got me down. After going through the neighborhood of all the rich people, with houses a big as Longshore middle and high school. I saw the bridge needed to get to the forest area of longshore.

After traveling across the medium-size bridge, and passing by all the rows upon rows of trees, I was met with a dirt road, that travels through the entire forest, along that road, are a few passages that lead to various cabins/campsites. My father told me that we're the seventh turn, from there I should just go straight and make one last turn into the cabin area.

When I got to the cabin, I actually brought my bike into the cabin out of fear of people taking it or animals scratching it. When that was done, I quickly got into a meditation position and began meditating. This feels different, I feel as though I'm underwater sinking downwards towards an abyss. All that could be seen was a huge dragon devouring the qi that was entering my qi center.

It's as though my qi center served as a nurturing bed for the dragon, and the qi severed as food. No matter how much poured in the dragon would attempt to devour it all. Each one of Its black scales had thousands of pours in them. Using these pours to devour the qi. its size now more monstrous than before, appearing to be nearing maturity.

When I started meditating the speed at which my body absorbed qi nearly went up 10 times. The feeling of my body being ripped apart repaired was all too familiar yet undesirably foreign. It was honestly overwhelming. I could feel an enormous amount of qi enter my body, shifting around my insides while permanently changing my mind this went on for about an hour and a half, until the feeling that I couldn't handle the amount of qi entering my qi center. I always attempted to fill the qi center to the brink.

After breaking out of the meditation gasping for air. I was unable to see or feel properly. This is the part of it all that I hated more than any other. The feeling of being numb with all my edges dulled. After slowly getting up and getting something to drink I decided to practice breath of new life, I've learned that without meridians ill die.

It's as simple as that. From what I understand, the moment I destroy my qi ball and release the qi into my body ill die if theirs no path for qi to follow.

From that description, it seems I should have first created my qi meridians before started creating my qi center.

Focusing on my breathing, it seems the breath of new life, is the base form of the breathing technique that a martial artist should be using, it allows for the body to properly move qi throughout the body and to properly use techniques requiring qi.

It required that I breathe through the skin instead of focusing on inhaling air, I always need to focus on absorbing qi. This way a martial artist doesn't have to worry about meditating every time they use even a little qi.

This method does not negate the necessity of mediation. It just allows for qi to be constantly entering the body, replacing used qi. it took me some time to get hold of this different breathing tempo but after a few hard hours, I finally did it. Though right now I'm constantly branded with the feeling that my lung is going to burst any second now. It's still progressing though right. After timing how long I could continue this breathing method, coming up on 2 hours now. I had to try moving around while doing this.

To sum up, my experience would be simply quoted as clunky, unrefined and embarrassing. During all of this, I constantly felt the light head, tired and honestly claustrophobic.

With that done I decided to open the note that Mercia gave me earlier today. When I opened it, I saw a note that said?

"Call me" the note also had her phone number attached.