Ryo has been observing this peculiar girl for a while. It started when he sensed two Kages following a girl wearing nineteenth-century clothing. He felt that there was something off about the girl, and the Kage didn’t follow average humans. So he kept observing.
When they were about to do something, the girl attacked them, surprising Kage and Ryo. Seeing how the girl attacked was enough for him to be convinced that she could take care of herself. He continued to follow her until she seemed to settle in an abandoned house. ‘She has nowhere to go, is she an orphan?’ He thought. He knew the girl was presumably in her early teens. And by the looks of it, she knew nothing about where she was which was concerning. ‘Maybe she is Asian-American’.
That was most likely as she knew nothing about her current whereabouts and when he observed her interrogating one of the kage, she spoke in fluent English. He noticed the sun was about to rise meaning he needed to retreat to his hideout.
Later that day when the sun was setting, Ryo knew the girl must have fled after the construction workers started to demolish the abandoned property. ‘Where did she go?’ he thought, then he used his keen scent to track down the girl. He tried being as discreet as possible. Even though night was approaching it was still easy to notice strange activities like ninjas moving across the streets. The trail stopped at the coast. ‘Now why would you go to the beach?’ He guessed that she could be there to scavenge scraps or find any other trash she could eat. “So she is that homeless? Maybe I’ll give her something decent enough to eat after I ask her the big questions”.
He saw her looking out at the sea and the ninja seized this opportunity. He a blow dart and shot it at the girl. He knew the girl wouldn’t expect an ambush as she seemed to be distracted by her thoughts. She collapsed into the ground. Ryo wasn’t exactly proud of this as anyone would mistake him for a stalker, pervert, or worst case a pedophile. Despite doing it before, he still felt wrong because he only used darts on his most important contract targets. The sunlight had finally dimmed down and Ryo could walk out in the open. He saw the girl lying down, completely unconscious and carried her to his hideout bridal style.
After laying her in the guestroom bed, he went to the kitchen and ordered takeout from a Korean restaurant he liked.
Twenty Minutes Later
The delivery man came and left the package by the doorstep as the customer specifically warned him not to stick around to see him take the order. A shadowed hand opened the door and grabbed the takeout.
He walked to the guestroom, “I hope she isn’t awake. Maybe she will like this gimbap I got from those Koreans”.
When he entered, he saw the girl’s horrified face. He realized he was in his true form and the girl may not have seen a creature like him before. The girl didn’t scream but was frantically looking for a way out. Ryo placed the takeout on the table and slowly approached the girl. “Calm down little girl, I’m not going to hurt you”.
The girl held out her fist and it looked like she was trying to shoot something out of it. Ryo tilted his head in confusion. The girl looked at her fist in disbelief. The ninja raised his hands to show he wasn’t going to harm her.
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“Calm down, just let me explain”.
“Why should I trust you? You paralyzed me and kidnapped me!”
“Okay, fair enough. But I had to because you would’ve run away if I approached you at the beach. And I usually only use my darts on my contracts”.
The girl’s eyes widened in shock. “Contracts?”
Ryo cleared his throat. “Yes, I am a…mercenary”.
The girl jumped out of bed and tried punching the window. Ryo pulled her back and immediately let go. The girl was trapped. “What do you want from me?” she asked.
“I saw you before yesterday. You seemed to be lost and your attire was from the late Edo period. You can speak Japanese but I’m sure you are more fluent in English. Are you American?”
“Amary, kan?” She muttered.
Ryo realized something. “Where are you from?”
The girl just stared blankly at him. “Are you from another world? I can tell you are. Did you see the sky being torn apart in your world?”
The girl stared at him in shock. His suspicion was correct. Ever since the sky slit purple holes, people have been disappearing and people suddenly appeared who haven’t even existed in this world before. They had no idea where they were and claimed to be from different worlds that were unusual compared to this world’s society.
“I’m guessing you live on an Island in Japan but the name is different, correct? Welcome to Japan”.
“Everything is so different here, the way people are dressed, the machines and houses…”
“Ah, so your world is set somewhere in the past centuries. This world is in the twenty-first century. So, you skipped more than a hundred years by crossing worlds”.
She was shocked and this seemed like a lot for her to take in. “My name is Ryo but you can call me Aragami if you want”.
The girl was scanning him with distrusting eyes. Ryo could tell the girl needed time to process this information. “Okay, I see you need time to process. If you don’t want to tell me your name then I will just call you ‘Little Girl’, sound fair?”
The girl just gave him a sardonic expression. Ryo walked to the table and placed the takeout in front of her. “I was not sure if you ate kimbap in your world but I didn’t know what to get you for breakfast. I also made Zosui* in the kitchen”.
(Zosui is a Japanese rice soup).
Aragami walked out of the room to dish up the zosui. He had a feeling that the girl wouldn’t run away. She was in a whole new world and she didn’t know her way around modern-day Japan.
Azula knew the creature was certain she wouldn’t run away. And she had to admit that he wasn’t wrong. She didn’t know her way around and she had nowhere to go. But she was not going to start trusting Aragami just yet. He could be useful and she needed to be smart about this, also he was the only ‘person’ who would offer her free food. She walked up to the table and picked up one roll of Kimbap. She took a sniff and took a small bite. As she was chewing, she realized it was delicious. She ate one then paused to check if she would be feeling any poisoning but nothing. Her stomach was growling and she munched on the entire meal. Then she noticed a plastic container with bubbling black water.
That is poison, she thought to herself. But then again, this world is ahead of mine so there is a great number of differences.
She picked up the container but because of its unusual shape, she had no idea how to open it. She tried to pull the round thing on top as she guessed that was how to open it. She pulled but no luck. Then out of frustration, she hit the table with it. That was when Aragami came in to see the noise. Azula stopped when she noticed him coming.
“What is going on?”
“I was trying to open this strange cup”.
“It’s a bottle and you are opening it wrong”. He explained as he took the bottle and Azula watched him twist the round thing, opening it with ease. He handed it to her and she tilted the opening to her lips and started drinking. She instantly stopped and put the bottle down. Consuming that liquid made her mouth feel like it had tiny explosions. Aragami chuckled in amusement.
“Okay, first things first, I will teach you the basics of modern lifestyle”.