I ran home with the last drip of energy I had left. My tired mood reflecting the evening sun seemed to with it's orange hue slipping through my window.
Slamming the door open I glanced over at my clock.
{5:14}
"About three more hours till Granny Yūka comes back from work. I don't want to have to get her involved in any of this weird oddity stuff.
I'll have to get everything done in these three hours before she arrives. If worse comes to worse, I can tell her I'm spending time out with Hiro and some other friends.
There's still too much to process and still too many questions."
I had been thinking about all the information Li Fang had told me during lunch. All though her answers did lead me to somewhat find my answers I was looking for, it still left me in a daze.
"The more you know, the less you know paradox huh?"
I paced over to my notebook.
It was closed and I noticed blood for the first time on the covers unlike before when I left it completely alone.
"If I hadn't known before, then now it's a dead giveaway."
I flipped through the pages until I came to the date.
My heart began to race feeling as if it was getting squeezed like a balloon.
There was definitely something particular about my notebook, and I was know sure of it.
'5/5/17'
"The ink!"
The pitch black corners of the papers seemed to spread even more so than before. Now only about 4 inches away from the messy sentence that I perhaps wrote.
It was obvious this was no mere prank by Granny Yūka anymore. It couldn't be. I almost punched my self across the face at how blatantly I ignored the notebook.
I turned the page and my body froze for a moment.
The ink bleed heavily through the papers as well - like a parasite slowing eating away at the notebook and corrupting the pages. It was a disease, a dangerous one that wouldn't stop unless the source was cut off.
What had been a small smudge on the bottom corners of the paper has now become a messy, large stain across many of the papers.
"It's spreading..."
I was going to reach the corner of the page, until-
my hand stopped.
I had come to realize, that miasma was definitely no normal thing someone like me should be touching. So how do I deal with - investigate it? I'd need to physically touch it at the very least, but it would definitely be harmful to me.
Then a voice reverberating through the past occurred-
'If something does pop up about the miasma, make sure to tell me alright?'
A girl that could most likely heal even her own cut off limbs.
I recalled the fight on the rooftop I had with her. The way her torso unnatural bent when stuck in the door, while striking me and then instantly twisting it back like it was completely fine.
No human could regenerate that quickly.
"Li Fang!
She might know something about the black ink on the corner! Considering how dark the ink is, I'm guessing the miasma, is at least a grade 4. But there's an issue...
I have to get Li Fang's help, someone who I don't even trust. Yet...
do I have a choice? This was my first time dealing with something like this and in particular, miasma, but I can't tell the scale of danger I'm dealing with. The best I can do is guesstimate given the little information about miasma and the soul that Li Fang gave me.
"I really have no choice, do I?"
I contemplated a few seconds before coming to a conclusion.
"She didn't kill me on the spot and she doesn't seem to be all that evil considering she let my blatant lie slip through.
She seemingly apologized profusely and unless she was the world's greatest actor, it looked genuine.
I'll take the notebook to her if this is my only lead so far."
Sighing once again, I closed the book making sure not to touch the bottom corners of the paper, before sprinting out the house.
"She should still be at school since the sun still isn't fully down. I have to make it quickly, before she leaves.
The date I wrote in the book feels like it means something, maybe I have to get this situation sorted out today..."