CHAPTER FOUR: DON'T DISAPPOINT.

"What?! Hey! Get me out of here! I'm stuck!" Shouts Ryuk.

"Don't waste your breathe, I can't hear you." Says Ash getting off of the saber seishin calmly walking over the swamp.

"You can't?" Asked Ryuk in disbelief.

"This is Mucky mirror, named after the fact that it's sticky and whomever's dark matter embodies it's own, becomes one with the swamp." Stated Ash.

"Wait what?!" Asked Ryuk.

"Yang, play a little with the kid I'll be right back." Commanded the man to his saber. "Ryuk, try your best to move, it will hasten the process!" He shouted as he calmly got on Yin, his second seishin.

"Which process?!" Asked Ryuk."Hey, don't ignore me! Hey!" Shouted Ryuk at the top of his voice evidently forgetting that which Ash had told him from the very start. He couldn't hear him.

"Now, how do I get away from this annoying mut!" Shouted Ryuk in anger. A silent shout it was.

Yang endlessly licked Ryuk's nose with its rough tongue. He would try his best to turn around but it didn't make much of a difference because wherever he turned to, the sabers tongue was there, ready to agitate him to death. In anger, Ryuk shouted insults to the saber, one could only imagine what he was barking because the saber didn't hear a thing. Finally, Ryuk had enough and couldn't not hold back his rage to a couple of insults. Just then waves pushed Ryuk away from the saber. The swamp was now uninhabitable. All the creatures that were around them got further away. The swamp was going on a rampage. In view of this, Ryuk was shocked and delighted to see that he had gotten far from the seishin. But at the blink of an eye, his celebration was short lived.

"Nice progress, you moved... well sort of." Stated Ash getting off of his seishin and walking up to Ryuk as if he had never left.

"Why don't you get me out of here already!" Shouted Ryuk.

"I can actually hear you now." Stated Ash looking at the swamps tide."Its unsettled, which means he reduced the water content, more like he flushed a degree of his dark matter down the drain. Idiot." Thought Ash as he stamped on the swamp releasing a wave of white energy, calming the swamp.

"When do we even begin this training. I thought you were gonna teach me how to excorsise demons, not how to swim in a swamp." Stated Ryuk disappointedly facing Ash.

"Why do you think that the most common question you have been asked by the adults you've met so far is your reason for joining Black Rose?" Asked Ash.

"I dunno." Replied Ryuk.

" It's because, Black Rose is for the meek and not the selfish. It's for the understanding mind and not for the emotional heart. It's for those who are disciplined and not for those who are prideful."

"This swamp is meant to get rid of your emotional heart and help you gain control over your emotions." Said Ash.

"Okay but how is this supposed to help me stop being emotional?" Asked Ryuk.

"The swamp is your body, it reacts through your bond with it via dark matter and dark matter sparks up through emotional discharge. Picture yourself as a cup and your dark matter as water inside it."

"If the cup moves, so does the water. The more agitated the cup, the more water is gonna spill." Stated Ash.

"Ooh, sweet but, what exactly is dark matter?" Asked Ryuk.

"These were all the theoretical things your mother was supposed to teach you." Said Ash with his palm on his face.

"Dark matter is your life energy. The scholars would define it as your worth in alignment to HiTar's will. It is mainly used for many purposes but the common ones are to enhance overall strength, speed and healing prowess."Said Ash.

"Hmm? I don't get it." Said Ryuk looking dumbfounded.

"You will, now find a solution to your current predicament. We don't have all week." Said Ash as he walked over to Yin.

Ryuk took a weeks worth of time to fully interpret all he could do while within the swamp. He was hardly capable of getting himself out and it seemed impossible for him to do so but it seemed as if he had already done that which Ash needed him to.

"Listen," says Ash as his legs erupt a large torrent of aggressive white energy. That which they called dark matter."concentrate most of your energy down to your legs."

"But how?" Asked Ryuk.

"Over the week you have practised endlessly to master the movement of the swamp and that was only made true by your dark matter. Moving the swamp is accomplished by moving your dark matter. So push most of the swamp underneath your feet and make it twirl." Stated Ash as he walked backed away from the boy.

" Ooh so a whoosh then a twirl." Stated Ryuk as the swamp went dead calm."There...I did..."

Suddenly he started sinking deep into the swamp. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't talk and he couldn't see. The swamp felt empty and dead. The deeper he went the darker it got. Sinking, he could see a large black void that had been twirling aggressively pulling him to it. Instinctively he tried to swim away but the swamp seemed to go against his wishes. Aggressively the void pulled him in, into a thunderstorm where lightning doesn't miss and thunder doesn't let up to roar. His veins bulged as his very essence seemed to be consumed by this large ball of misery. A black goo like substance could be seen forcing itself into his abdomen which caused him so much pain resulting to his eye going dead black.

Immediately then the swamp puked him out into the air still entrapped within the same void. Ash spotted him and caught him by the collar. He looked at the mess around his abdomen as the black mass continued pushing itself into Ryuk, not letting up to attain control over his flesh. Ash accumulated his brilliant white dark matter by his fingertips and caught the grotesque lifeform. Pulling it out it presented itself as a large black organism that seemed to lack a mind of its own.

"This is his dark matter. Quite large and uncontrollably chaotic." Said Ash as he looked into the never ending darkness with only lightning and thunder echoing about.

Ferociously, he let out his own dark matter to envelop that of Ryuk. His white dark matter seemed to guide Ryuks dark matter harmoniously into a ball. A relatively small dark blue ball.

Ash grabbed it and slowly inserted it into the boys abdomen. Ryuk let out an agonizing scream as his eyes turned back to their original colour. As his veins seemed to subside. What he had experienced was a loss of spiritual energy. His chaotic and tainted spiritual energy had now been purified.

"Yang, take Ryuk and follow me. He needs to rest after that much pain." Commanded Ash to one of his sabers as he climbed on Yin.

The chirping of birds and soothing flow of the river woke the boy up to a fine morning. Ryuk woke up gasping for air screaming aloud. He slowly looked at himself remembering the black void he had been in. He then stood up and starred at his feet.

" I'm finally out of that stinking swamp!" Shouted the boy in excitement as he fell out of the tent ruining it in the event.

"Hope you're into game meat." Said Ash as he served them boar meat soup.

"*munching*Where are we?" Asked Ryuk.

"Giants Held." Answered Ash in a sophisticated manner.

"*munching*Whoa! The trees here are huge!"

"Could you not speak while your eating." Stated Ash.

From that which the boy had experienced, Ryuk had a wanting appetite edging on Ash to teach him how to first create a bonfire and also cook boar meat. As a city boy he never learned of any of these and because his father was a man who was trapped in his office neither did he. Ash also taught him how to repair the tent.

Ash handed him an extra pair of the uniform he had been using while at the swamp and a wooden training katana. He laid down a couple of instructions for him before he left.

"Listen here, you are going to train with Yin. You already have superior control over your dark matter now, use it in the battlefield. Mucky mirror shall be where you duel and this place, Giants Held shall be where you hunt either actual prey or Yin."Stated Ash.

He stood up and unsheathed his blade, swang it harmoniously to the trees that were around them cutting each and every tree that was around them making a circular area surrounded by logs.

" These will be your resources for the next three months." Said Ash.

" Three months?!" Asked Ryuk.

" Yes, three months. Per month ill come by to assess that which you can do and add on to the skills you have already acquired." Stated Ash as he calmly got onto Yang."Dont disappoint." He concluded as he left as if he was never there.

Just as he had said, he came per month assessing Ryuks progress and teaching him many things. By the third month Ash estimed Ryuk to be worthy of facing him blade to blade. There he gave him two blades, a katana with a black handle and white sheathe just as his and broad ninja machete that he kept by his waist.

This transpired on the 23rd of August, the day of the Annual Interbay Competition.