Ryuji woke up early again, only this time he didn’t head for the wizard’s shop. Instead, he took the odd bathing cloak that had been delivered to his room the evening before and headed for the river. He didn’t have much experience or more like no experience in washing clothes by hand because he was from Japan where most people had washing machines to do their clothing. Upon arrival, he found that there were a lot of women and children gathered around the stone staircases leading into the water but they were mostly beastfolk of various kinds. Remembering what the old cat at the market had told him he decided he would test that and approached the river anyway.
As he approached several of the younger women seemed a bit flustered at first but he pretended to ignore them and they all seemed to calm down. At least until he began stripping his shirt and pants off. The older women and the children along with the few men that were there just ignored him in turn but the young women down to the older girls all seemed to be paying rapt attention.
Ryuji smiled at them and winked before pulling out the bathing cloak and putting it on. as he was putting it on, he could swear he heard a chorus of groans. That answered his question, it wasn’t unanimous that he should be ignored so he opted to use the bathing cloak after all.
As he went about the process of washing his clothing several of the younger children began playing in the bubbles that were floating downstream from him. For the most part, he ignored them but he had to admit they were cute splashing about and trying to catch the bubbles. He was just finishing with his shirt and hanging it beside his pants on the railing to dry a bit when he heard a scream.
Ryuji looked over and spotted one of the young children in the water beyond the railing. The railing, having been intended to keep an adult from washing away, did little to help the tiny beastfolk girl. It was then that he saw one of the older beastfolk women getting all upset. He didn’t think twice about what he needed to do.
Without any hesitation, Ryuji stripped the bathing cloak off and tossed it on the railing. The next moment he dove into the river head first and as he surfaced, he began making powerful strokes toward the young girl downstream. He was glad for his summertime swimming lessons at school. He could hear a commotion on the bank of the river but ignored it and concentrated on swimming. Just a few meters before he could reach her the little cat-girl by the look of her slipped under the water’s surface.
Cursing Ryuji caught his breath and dove under after her. It was dark under the surface of the water and hard to see but he finally caught a glimpse of her struggling ahead of him. He made for her as fast as he possibly could but she stopped struggling just before he reached her and went limp. He caught her under her arms and hugged her back to his chest then made haste for the surface.
As he broke the surface of the river, he could hear yelling and cheering but he didn’t have time to think about that. He began swimming with one arm while holding the limp girl with the other. Before long another set of stairs came into view and he began swimming towards them at a steep angle.
He was worried that he wasn’t going to make it to the stairs when the end of a wooden pole was thrust into the water just in front of him. He grabbed it without hesitation and several people on the other end of the pole began pulling him into the staircase. As soon as he touched his feet on the stairs someone grabbed the little girl from his arms.
He spent a moment there catching his breath. There were a bunch of people telling him that he was awesome and that he was great and things like that but something else caught his attention more. Wailing could be heard above the din of the crowd and he distinctly heard someone say “I’m Sorry but she’s gone.”
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Ryuji got up and rushed over to where the older cat-woman was crying over the limp form of the little cat-girl. Ryuji heard someone saying that it was okay, at least he tried. He ignored them and pushed the old woman aside before kneeling next to the girl.
Ryuji leaned her head back and opened her mouth but he couldn’t hear her breathing. He didn’t wait the correct ten seconds but instead placed his ear to her chest and though it was faint he thought he heard a heartbeat. The next instant he began pushing on the middle of her chest with both hands one atop the other. After the first couple of pushes, a decent amount of water came out of her mouth but then nothing after that.
After only ten to fifteen compressions he tilted her head back and began blowing into her mouth with his mouth completely covering hers. He heard whispers and mutterings behind him. “What is he doing? Is he trying to defile her body?” “You don’t suppose he’s trying to steal her soul or something do you?” “Should we stop him, maybe we should get the city guard?”
Ryuji ignored them, he had to if he was going to be quick enough to save her life. Damn it all, CPR classes weren’t supposed to be something that he needed to use. Not ever! He had just finished the second set of compressions and was about to reach for her mouth to begin breathing into her mouth again when she began coughing violently. He rolled her over to her side and sat her up so she could cough it all out. Suddenly there was a hush in the crowd for several seconds before everyone erupted in cheering and praise.
Ryuji made a mental note to himself to fund a public swimming class and to teach CPR to the people of the town. He was just about to start heading back towards the other staircase and his clothing when he got mauled by a crowd of fans. Everyone was crowding in to try talking to him all at once and it wasn’t just the young women but the old women and even the men.
Ryuji was just wondering what he was going to do when the town guard arrived and broke the crowd up. A handsome young captain of the guard with a scar traced across the bridge of his nose came up to Ryuji and handed him his clothing. After hammering their fists atop each other in this world’s version of a handshake, the captain thanked him.
It was at that moment that the captain noticed his ID pendant around his neck and popped a hasty bow. “I’m so sorry m’ lord, I didn’t realize that you were nobility.”
Ryuji shushed him quickly and looked around to see if anybody else had heard. It seemed that there were other guardsmen keeping the people away from them and from the recovering little girl and her elderly guardian. Ryuji looked back to the captain who seemed a bit bewildered but at least he wasn’t bowing anymore. “Listen, I don’t remember my past so I’d prefer if you didn’t mention the whole noble thing, okay? I don’t want anybody treating me like I’m somehow different from them just because I have this necklace and they don’t. I may have land somewhere but I don’t remember it so there is probably some other relative in charge of it right now and that’s fine with me. My not being there is probably making them happy too, understand?”
The guard captain seemed a little taken aback but he didn’t want to protest because he couldn’t get past the idea that he shouldn’t talk back to a noble even if it was an order to do just that. In the end, he just nodded, and with that, he finally spoke again. “Understood m’ lo… sir. I still wonder, how did you bring a girl back from the dead though? Do you have some kind of divine blessing or something?”
Ryuji just had to facepalm at that comment. “First, you need to understand that she wasn’t dead, just close to dying. Second, what I did anybody could have done if they only knew how. Third, I don’t remember how I knew to do that in the first place. All that said, I would like to teach others how to do that and if somebody started teaching people how to swim there wouldn’t be nearly as much need for it. This little girl nearly drown but it’s only because she didn’t know how to swim, to begin with.”
The guard captain looked pensive at first. He seemed lost in deep thought but then he got a bit of a grin on his face. “Would your lor… you, object to the guard teaching people how to swim in our off time? I just thought that it would be a good thing for us to do to protect the people, but…”