A few days had passed in Soppio and the town was starting to return to normalcy.

Charlie was setting up her new room, she didn’t have many belongings with her to begin with so she was almost finished. Being a part of an assassin guild didn’t allow her any time to make childhood memories, gain experiences or items of sentimental value that young girls should have at this point in their lives.

The entire house that Charlie occupied was a newly built home that Sanosuke paid in full for Charlie to own. Charlie was adamant that she only needed a small room, but Sanosuke insisted that Charlie accept the house for herself.

The current story Sanosuke told the townsfolk about Charlie was that Sanosuke had known the young Norse elf and her parents. Her parents died and she came to find Sanosuke after they exchanged letters.

While she was on the way to Soppio she trained hard to be able to fight, and even though she had the appearance of a little girl the townsfolk accepted that excuse. After all their savior Sanosuke was also quite young when he first appeared to them and proved how fearsome he was.

Charlie was given some clothes for her to wear from the mothers of Soppio; back in Tir she only had the guild’s uniform of all black to wear. All the clothes she currently had were placed on her bed, she picked up a white sundress and examined it.

“Is this something a bad-ass child assassin would wear?” she thought, placing it back on the bed. She grabbed a regular short sleeve shirt and put on a pair of overalls; back on earth when Charlie was a man, she loved to wear jean overalls and roll up the pant legs.

She did exactly that and slipped on a pair of children’s boots;looking at the mirror Charlie looked exactly like how she would have looked back on earth. In the mirror she saw the sundress but ultimately decided against re-dressing herself.

“Old habits like this are hard to break huh.” At least Charlie thought she looked cute in her current outfit, and she knew that if Freya was here she would tell her the same. Leaving her home she walked through Soppio, being greeted by every person who passed her.

Because she helped protect the town, had Sanosuke vouch for her and the fact she was also a child the town accepted her immediately into their community. It was quite nice honestly, Charlie’s old neighbors in the apartments back on earth kept to themselves.

Kids were asking her to play with them or teach them how to jump around the way she did during the battle, mothers asking her if she needs more clothes or food, fathers nodding their heads in respect and acknowledgement.

“Da…mn…. Du…. You…are … a bonafide …. H..er..o ..he..re,” the static voice in Charlie's head chimed in.

“Yeah, a hero, a welcome change of pace for once,” Charlie responded back. She didn’t know exactly when it was she started to respond back to the voice. If anything she hoped the voice would talk to her more from time to time. There was this hint of familiarity in the static voice’s ‘tone” when it would speak to her.

Sanosuke’s smithy appeared in her vision, and she started to jog towards it, there she saw Sanosuke’s blacksmith’s apprentices working diligently; they each quickly said their hellos to the young Norse elf and continued to work.

She was quite surprised at the diverse age ranges of the apprentices, the youngest apprentice there looked to be thirteen while the oldest appeared to be in their fifties to late sixties.

“The..se … gu..y…s… really… resp..ec…t.. That… old.. Samurai…” the static voice said, it had admiration in its tone for Sanosuke. Charlie agreed and quickly went into the backroom, Sanosuke’s personal forge and workspace was there.

Sanosuke stood in a sword pose swinging a newly forged sword against a wooden dummy. He was testing the weight and quality of the weapons. He nodded to Charlie and told her to give him one moment before he continued to finish testing the current sword he held.

Charlie walked around the room and stared at the wide range of items hung up on the walls or placed on shelves. He saw souvenirs from a foreign place she didn’t recognize, a captain’s hat and jacket placed on a wooden mannequin.

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Then she saw the black katana, the one Sanosuke used to defeat the attackers of Soppio. Pinned to the wall above the katana was the blue Haroi with the white mountain shaped triangles on the sleeves.

Charlie remembered Sanosuke was wearing this during the battle, but she didn’t have any time at the moment to remember what this Haori stood for.

“No way, this is a Shinsengumi uniform, that blue is so dignified and cool,” Charlie said in awe, Sanosuke stopped swinging the sword and placed it in a basket labeled ‘finished’. He then looked at the Norse elf girl with his eyebrow raised.

“I have been meaning to ask young Charlie, you are very versed in Japanese culture and customs. More so than the average person I know.” He then grabbed another sword from a different pile and started to test that one.

“O-oh well I know about the shinsengumi mostly because of otome games,” Charlie said with a hint of embarrassment in her tone. “They are games where you play as a woman, go through a story and on the way “fall in love” with one of the men in the game. There are a few of those games that take place in that old era of Japan with members of the shinsengumi.”

The Shinsengumi, an elite group of swordsman from all walks of life, who were allied with the shogunate in 1863. Regradless of how history went and how people felt about the group, in the modern age, they are revered in pop culture and by people all over the world, like Charlie.

Sanosuke is a direct descendant of Harada Sanosuke. In media he would usually be a brash man who used a spear in combat. Of course Charlie knew that, in her first play through of the Shinsengumi dating game, she romanced Harada.

Sanosuke kept swinging the sword, but he was still listening intensely to Charlie, which Charlie noticed. “I have a great love and respect for Japan, I didn’t really have a good upbringing, so I sunk myself into Japanese media and history as … my escape,I guess? It’s easier to fake believing in yourself when you watch a show or play a game where the main character does.” Charlie lightly chuckled but you could tell from her tone the weight of sadness she had from that last line.

“Me and my late friend Carmichael both wanted to go to Japan one day.” The weight of sadness grew even more in Charlie's tone.

“Where are you from, Charlie?” Sanosuke noticed the change in her tone and quickly decided to ask her this question to snap her out of her sorrow.

“I’m from down under! Australia,” Charlie said with a smile. “I learned a lot about my own culture's history too.” She took a lot of pride in that fact.

Sanosuke stopped swinging the sword in shock and then laughed lightly. “Really? My late wife always wanted to go to Australia, it was the one country she wanted to visit.” Now Sanosuke spoke with a weight of sadness in his tone.

Charlie started to beat herself up, believing she was the one that caused the conversation to get depressing. “Well once you win the Tryfing you could wish to relive your life with her and take her to Australia,” Charlie said trying to bring the mood up.

Sanosuke smiled and continued to swing the sword in the air.“Maybe. My wife died of old age peacefully in her sleep. The week before she died, she remembered me and our time together. She told me that she had lived a long and fulfilling life with me. Like she knew it was her time, I don’t know if I want to change that or have her suffer again. Your friend Carmichael, how did he die?”

Charlie stood and said nothing for a few moments.

“He killed himself,” she said.

“Apologies young Charlie, I—” Charlie spoke up and told Sanosuke it was okay, after all she brought up his late wife’s memory. Sanosuke placed the sword back in the testing pile and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“If you won the Tryfing, would you wish for Carmicheal to be brought back to life?” Sanosuke asked.

Deep down in her intrusive thoughts she had asked that same question, but she did her best to ignore it. She wasn’t here to win; she was never going to win anyways.

Charlie was the weakest retainer to ever enter a Tryfing, there was no statistical chance for her to win. “I don’t think… I have the right to take away his decision.” Charlie's voice trembled and tears started to appear in her eyes. When was the last time she felt like crying? Back on earth? When Achilles tried to stop Lady Freya from picking her?

“I wasn’t really there for him; I couldn’t get past my own insecurities and problems to see how much he was hurting. How much of the same issues he was going through while trying to be there for me.”

Sanosuke went to his desk and pulled out a clean handkerchief, handing it to Charlie. She thanked him and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Even if I somehow win, I'm not good enough to make a wish like that. I’m not worthy of my friend’s love, or any love for that matter. I hate myself so much, Sanosuke-sensei. I only killed myself because the only friend I had did and I couldn’t handle these feelings of loneliness anymore. I couldn’t handle having parents that didn’t care about me or my sister thousands of miles away. I couldn’t handle being used by people and getting my heart broken time and time again. I'm only here in this new world because of how weak and pathetic I am.”

Charlie handed the handkerchief back, but Sanosuke insisted that she should keep it, just another kind gesture and gift her teacher had given to her.

I don’t deserve this kindness, she thought, but those thoughts were how the old Charlie felt. She was trying her best to stop those thoughts.

“I want to change. I want to be good enough, I want to be someone that could make that wish.” She stared at her sensei, no longer having tears in her eyes but a strong conviction.

Sanosuke understood why she wanted to be under his wing, she saw his determination in battle and got to know in just a short time the type of man he was. The type of person Charlie wanted to be.

He smiled at the young girl.

“Then training starts now,” he yelled at Charlie, which surprised her and caused her to straighten up like a soldier would. Sanosuke handed Charlie one of the swords that needed testing and took one off the pile for himself.

“First we are going to erase those disgusting words and doubts you have; I’ll also need your help testing these swords, so I’ll teach you what to look out for.”

“Yes, sensei!” Charlie said loudly.

Sanosuke showed her how to feel the weight of the handle by rotating her wrist, that was the first test to see if something was wrong. Next they would swing the sword down and then side to side against the wooden dummy and see if the blade cut the wood or if it got chipped easily from the swings.

“Repeat after me!” Sanosuke shouted.

“Yes, Sensei!” Charlie shouted in response.

“I am good enough!” Sanosuke said.

“I am good enough!” Charlie repeated.

“I am worthy!” the teacher said.

“I am worthy!” the student replied with a small crack coming from her voice.

“Again,” Sanosuke shouted.

They repeated the words as they tested the swords and at one point Charlie could hear the static voice repeating the same words.

“I… am… go..od… en..ough.. I .. am .. worth..y And… so.. Are … you..C..h…”