Ryu held his mother in his arms so gently and softly , while his gaze remained totally unfocused,it was like he was in a constanct tug of war . That should be expected because after assimilating together with Ryu's original consciousness, the body now had two brains, although the wraith's brain wouldn't count as one initially but the more he absorbed and grew the more he became aware and the more he became equally as intelligent as an adult human and there was still a great potential of going beyond.
One could also say the wraith had every single potential of being the main consciousness in the body but Ryu's consciousness also seemed to be unwilling to just leave the reins to something he didn't know, he had come this far and he was willing to go beyond for his loved once , he couldn't afford to entrust this task to an unknown entity.
After a bit of struggle the wraith finally gave in , at the end of the day it was still a seedling, and it needed time to grow properly and it also needed Ryu's body. Unknowingly at some point this two became a single entity but they themselves weren't aware yet, Ryu was too young and inexperienced while the wraith was no different from an infant. All it could think of was 'absorb, absorb, hungry, thirst, more, more...' that was all. It's thoughts were too simple. No schemes or complex emotions, it only knew excitement and confusion and of course interest.
Ryu finally got to his little wooden house, he had initially wanted to take over black beard's location but he changed his mind after staring at his mother.
He walked towards the bed and placed her on it as gently as possible, he was quite scared at this moment, he didn't know anything about medicine or health care and he could only stare. But it was at this moment he felt a pull from the second consciousness in him. Although he was cautious because he wouldn't want to be the one who saved and still harmed his mother. But he also couldn't feel the usual blood lust from the wraith and he could swear he felt a tinge of sympathy. So he handed over the reins of control.
After closing his eyes for a few minutes, he brought his hand up towards his chest and pull out with force albeit slowly, a dark red orb of blood slowly congeal outside his chest, he grabbed at it gently and brought it towards his mother's mouth but suddenly hesitated. The blood was powerful no doubt but it wasn't to the extent it could cause a cultivator to explode in bloody mist, but that couldn't be said for a normal human.
After some thought, he made it divide into two smaller pieces and he let the one flow down into her mouth gently, he watched as it flowed down her throat before his eyes rolled backwards and he passed out.
Hannah laid still for some minutes before her body started shaking violently, had Ryu been awake to see this he would have exploded in panic.
Red veins started crawling from her heart position quietly spreading all over her body and in a matter of minutes she was already covered from head to toe, she continued shaking violently and it even got more violent.
Suddenly a sound of something breaking sounded in the room for a moment, then all the veins on her body started receding with blinding spread and in mere seconds they all vanished. After a few minutes a gurgling sound could be heard in the room, if a cultivator was here he would have recognised this sound immediately. This was the sound of spiritual energy fumes flowing through the body and cleansing it, when it came in contact with a meridian, it made those gurgling sounds as a sign of cleansing.
Sticky black goo could be seen flowing out from her body and in few minutes the house was filled with a foul smell, but Ryu was still out cold and couldn't feel a thing going on in the environment.
After one hour of cleansing the whole process came to a sudden halt and it was this moment Hannah's eyes snapped open. Her iris glowed a piercing red colour for some time before dimming back to the usual maroon color.
At first she was confused but it only took a few seconds for everything that happened the last hours before she passed out to register in her mind, but following that she immediately jumped to her feet.
"RYU!!!" She screamed anxiously, what type of mother was she? She obviously saw her son barge into a den of lions to snatch her back but all she did was pass out so gently like it didn't matter, why would she even do that? All she knew was that at that moment she somehow felt like all her sufferings come to an end for some weird reason. She calmed down to think only to notice that her boy was passed out on the floor, his face so pale like he lost tons of gallons of blood, she felt a pang of pain in her heart, she walked forward to pick him up but retreated in a hurry when she saw her own body.
" What's this?" She looked confused but still gently picked him up and headed for the small bath tub that laid at the other end of the room. She stripped immediately and also stripped her son, they both showered together before she picked him and tucked him safely in the bed.
She realised something in the whole process and after being done she wanted to think about it now.
Firstly how did she become all strong all of a sudden? She could tell because she herself knew that she couldn't lift Ryu with the state she was in when she started her day, but suddenly she felt so strong, like an inexhaustible machine.
Secondly she could feel her senses grew sharper, like nothing could escape her eyes, no sound could escape her ears same goes to smell and her nose.
One week later....
Ryu stretched and stood up, his bones cracked and rumbled like a mini storm.
How long had he slept so peacefully without worries?
He looked around only to see that he was in a pretty luxurious room, he stood up groggily and made his way towards the window. There he saw his mother, but what was she doing??
She just sat still in the morning sun without moving, Ryu was confused and immediately ran down to see her but eventually stopped when he ran past a mirror. His eyes, they were still without pupils just a plain red but this time there was a crimson flame in the middle that represented his pupils. He couldn't see his mother like that, he stood lost in thought.
" You've woken up, come , come let's eat"
A voice he had always dreamt to hear sounded behind him, he froze for a bit but eventually smiled then ran into her embrace.
"Ooof, do you want to break your mother's tiny bones" Hannah joked but what made it more hilarious to her was how her son immediately jumped back and started scrutinizing her to be sure she's not hurt.
They eventually sat down at the table and started eating, now that he could think clearly, he couldn't help but realise that he couldn't feel that foreign soul within him anymore, that somehow startled him and he slowed down a bit , but when he looked more, he couldn't help but sigh..
" ....so that's how it is" he muttered softly
"What are you whispering to yourself there, eat up already" Hannah said with a smile
" Mom ...you..." Ryu stuttered as he couldn't find the words to say yet before he just dipped his head lower on concentrated on his food.
" Your eyes right??" Hannah stated without looking up. But 'seeing' the shock in her son's eyes she couldn't help but shake her head.
" You're still my little Ryu I gave birth to, whatever got into you didn't change it"
" Mom how do you...."
" I don't know, I can just sense it, I spent time observing you while you were asleep, believe it or not your mom is now a powerful cultivator he he he" she smiled cheekily before she continued " at first I could feel the struggle between you and whatever was in you, but it suddenly stopped after 3 days, my little Ryu loosed, you were devoured!"
The spoon fell from Ryu's hand.. although he had made his deduction earlier but he thought it was the opposite, because he couldn't feel his thoughts been influenced or anything of sort so he thought he was finally safe.
" What do you mean devoured?"
" It's as I said , you lost the fight, and the other soul won, but since it was infant, to survive, it had to catalyse on your consciousness, your memories, your experiences and this is the outcome" she paused for a bit " I don't know what you have turned to but you two are no longer two, you're my Ryu and you're still that thing!"
Ryu was silent, he knew she was right, he could feel the strength, the bloodthirst , before it felt borrowed, but now he felt all of it firsthand, like it was his very own desire. Even staring at his mom right this moment was so tempting that he was finding it had but his sense of value still remained so he didn't act on primal instincts. He could also feel the fresh power coursing through his mother, although she wasn't a match for him, but he knew she wasn't weak anymore.
More importantly he even felt more close to her, he could smell his blood flowing through her and he was grateful for that. He suddenly smiled and continued digging in his food.
"How about you go to the academy Ryu?"
He paused for a bit before saying " you think so?"
", Yes, there are many experts there which could possibly be bad but it's also good for you at the moment and I also want you to go with your sister" she replied while staring into those red eyes.
" Ok I'll do that" Ryu didn't even hesitate and agreed.
Two days later he was standing in front of a man who seemed to be in his mid thirties
" Name??"
"Ryu"
" Step into the line and wait for a bit..."
Ryu stepped back .
This was going to be the real beginning of his journey into the cultivation world....