Skyrimancy in Naruto (Si/Skyrim Game System) Chapter 2 - Squirrel

Hot baths were surprisingly relaxing. Askuna paused the world, by thinking about pressing 'Esc' key, and while he was in the menu, he was seeing in his peripherals other people suspended in an eerie silence.

When he looked around, the water vapour stopped moving, which was an unreal experience. While noting those observations, Askuna swiftly navigated to the audio section, to turn on the music, not too loud, but to have some background ensemble.

Ambience - Day started playing, though not as liked by Askuna as Night or Rain, it was still marvellous piece of music. Certainly immersive.

He returned from his paused world and continued to stare at the ceiling, whilst listening to any comments made by bathing patrons. After a few quality minutes, he found himself somewhat distracted by the music, being unable to concentrate between it, reading subtitles and assigning meaning to words. The strange echo and reverberations of the place didn’t help either.

He didn’t sigh, even if he wanted to, least it would bring another conversation with the old man, therefore he just went again to the music section and disabled it, fully concentrating at learning the language.

Time moved on, and there were some other visitors who went in, and two previous strangers left the middle heated Onsen. Other people generally talked with each other, even the old man talked with them, but it was about nothing too serious, just some small talk being done.

Many of those talks, were just typical – “Ah, feeling very good, aren’t you.” – and then some affirmative replies.

‘Which is a perfect opportunity to me to learn some common phrases.’ – Askuna mused to himself, before trying to repeat those simple sentences in his head.

Yet, the most common problem, which Askuna encountered so far, was that more often than not, people talked with such a speed, that he wasn’t able to distinguish most words from each other, even when he was clearly registering them repeating in the subtitles.

Comparatively, it was much worse than listening to speech in anime. There, it was often spoken in much more ‘understandable’ manner, if one could say so. Here, everyone’s speech with their little quirks seemed to blend together, which made untangling that mess, all the harder.

As it stands, he hasn’t figured out grammar of Japanese yet, nor was he trying to do it for now, as he had reached a conclusion that it would be far better to just focus on analysing common phrases. Well… those which he actually remembered.

Although, his mind was working at a full throttle, repeating in his mind after people certain sentences, while seeing their English counterparts, he often had that sense of loss, originating from the knowledge, that most of what he was learning at the beginning is simply forgotten.

Though that is how a human mind works, if someone doesn’t have perfect memory. That was a reason he wasn’t distraught, because despite all the setbacks, and his circumstances, he couldn’t imagine a better place to learn than here. Generally speaking, Onsen were quite a peaceful area, people were just focusing on their own experiences most of the time and there was only occasional shimmer of small talk going about.

Finally, the old man, that he was talking to previously, excused himself, and his two proteges did so as well. Askuna didn’t though, as he has felt that by staying here, he could reap more benefits yet.

‘Yet, why haven’t I heard my sneak levelling up for quite a while, now?’ – Askuna realized, only currently recollecting, that the last time he has heard it levelling up, was when he was walking alone in the locker room.

That time, he was hidden, and he reached 19th level of the skill there. Before, he levelled up to 18th while walking through the deserted side streets and back alleys, where most of the time he was hidden as well.

He checked his level, and sure, it was at the beginning of 19th. No progress had been done, while he was sitting there, with a stealth mode indicating that he was being ‘seen’.

It is also highly likely that walking through more populated streets, where he would also be seen standing out, would make for terrible levelling of the skill, if any, based on the amount of time he spent on the main streets.

‘Though, it may be an illusion,’ – reflected Askuna trying to remember rules of the game – ‘Generally, walking into the wall in the Whiterun’s Reach made someone level up to 100 in some hours… “- he imagined the scenario and then thought dejectedly – ‘Yeah, it is probably not an illusion.’

His hunger and sleep bars were at manageable dip, latter replenished by instantly eating a soup from his inventory, when he had received notification that it gives him small penalty to statistics. Yet overall, he felt quite tired from all of this bastardized learning of Japanese. Therefore, he stopped and for the first time felt fully relaxed in the bathtub.

‘Well, it is time to leave. I’m not levelling well and there are also other matters I would rather get done today.’ – Askuna decided while moving out of the bathtub – ‘And speaking of things.”

When exiting the bathtub, he went by, in close proximity to one of the patrons using the Onsen. When he directed his stealth eye, that showed ‘visible’ to him, on that person, he got a game-like prompt before his eyes.

‘Steal’ – it proclaimed.

Askuna pressed the metaphorical ‘e’ key and the world paused. Game inventory of the person opened up, and in it, he found only one item, which was a towel, that the man had resting on his head.

Its value was indicated as 3 Ryo for some indecipherable reason, and it was classified as ‘Miscellaneous’. The steal chance was 78%.

Askuna stared at the option presented before him. Glared hard, for what was 10 seconds. Then he remembered words of a certain famous person, of his previous world, saying that – ‘He can get up each morning and take full breath, proud of himself, that everything he has, he earned himself, without any swindling, cunning or cheating.’

‘Why have I even considered that?’ – chided himself Askuna, while smirking internally. If it was not a paused world, he would be shaking his head in a good humour. What a beautiful words to live by…, though they may have him killed one die.

‘What would I do, if there was a certain item, which I would have to posses to progress, but the only way to get it would be nefarious?’ – pondered Askuna to himself.

‘Sill, power is power, and it would be unwise to not harness it. Ability to steal weapons or armours from enemies, would certainly come in handy.’ – reasoned Askuna, then continued contemplating – ‘Not grinding it, could mean a difference between life and death, yet I can find much better ways to do it. For example, give somebody an item, and take it back.’

On the other note, his system automatically considered Ryo as a currency, and he preferred to keep it in inventory, rather than in a bathroom’s locker.

‘Which could be suspicious, if some ninjas were to investigate it, and found none…’ – Askuna discovered a potential mistake in his previous actions.

Yet, coming back to the topic, he currently had several hundred Ryo, in his system. Each, in the same pile, depicting a golden coin.

‘No, that wouldn’t do.’ – disregarded Askuna, because if some ninja was now in Onsen and looking at them, he would notice a coin appearing out of nowhere. Other items, in his inventory also would be quite suspicious, especially vegetable soups.

‘Though, it would be funny.’ – Askuna gave last comment on that matter, considering what would happen if he gave a soup to the naked person who is bathing.

Therefore, with nothing to be done here anymore, and seeing no suitable items to do what he wanted here, he closed the window and went for his towel to go take shower and wipe himself down.

After quick wash in cold water, he went to get changed in a locker room and realized that there was another person changing out there. He briefly considered playing his stunt again, trying to level some sneaking and maybe pickpocketing, but when he started to walk to a changing man from behind, it felt too…. Anyway, he disregarded that option, and after changing his clothes walked out of the bathing area, straight through the blue curtain, to the lobby.

He nodded to the employee, owner or whoever was in charge, and said ‘goodbye’, for which he received the same farewell, the same as the one he has heard during his shopping experiences before.

The area felt quite deserted, compared to the time he arrived there two hours ago. The sun, was in full throttle, ruthlessly hitting its treacherous photons on cowering mortals.

‘Well, quite an exaggeration.’ – mused Askuna while having his laugh while looking at the world from ‘certainly’ mirthful perspective, Askuna decided to find out what time is it. Fortunately, this task wasn’t too hard to accomplish.

The Skyrim System told him it was 13, right after noon, therefore he decided he had quite some time to look for some smith, workshop or anything like that. He wouldn’t be going inside, asking for a job, just yet, but first he would have to know how to say some sentences that he would like, and could probably convince a smith to hire some scrawny looking person, which he looked like… for now.

The map told him, that he didn’t walk by any forges, smiths, or anything weapon related. Yet, he found that the Onsen springs were displayed as Public Baths, which could have been a useful tool to identify the place, for the first time he came around, instead of just guessing.

Rookie mistake. Indeed, it also showed many icons of various establishments in this particular area, which not surprisingly gave often various options to choose from.

But it was a new tool for him, and clearly, he needed to get used to all the versatilities it can offer. Therefore, it was a prime time, to just walk-through different streets, and check the map from time to time. He decided to move away from the villages centre, to hopefully find some warehouses where merchants keep their cargo, like iron.

Yet, when the village walls came up in the horizon, he had to move sideways. For now, he was moving in some kind of residential district, with only occasional shops of different variety in the corners. He even spotted, a stationery store, which was cool to know, if he didn’t find any other closer to his home later.

In the distance he could see some huge buildings, therefore he decided to check them out. When he walked there, what came before his eyes, was some kind of crafting district. The noise was unmerciful. Constant thumps of hammers hitting metal, interchanged with rowdy shouts of busy people loitering around.

Well, it wasn’t that dramatic, yet unquestionably, the district lived its own life. It looked more like an introduction to an industrial era, than some workshops with individual craftsmanship and apprentices, that he has generally expected.

Everything, en masse, was huge, with worker class loitering around in different groups before big production halls, that looked to be manufactories of sorts. Strangely, distances between adjacent hangars were interspersed with groves, greens, shrubberies, with characteristic to the village thick foliage and gargantuan sizes.

It all contrasted a bit with the plain old, dully yellow gravel like substance that pathed the streets. To be honest, it all looked kind of organized, yet as if someone picked a middle of the forest, pathed some middle-sized roads and put some hangars connected to them.

He has spotted numerous pathways leading through the forest, and, seeing no reason not to, he went through one of them.

To his surprise, just several meters from the street, the noise from the outside vanished, replaced by the ecosystem of the forest. It was like a natural barrier, giving peace, just couple feet away from all the bustle of the district. There were other paths, crossing each other, and he found himself walking, looking and nature before him.

There were many people that he passed, some of them workers, some of them young couples, people with dogs. He was there just a few minutes in the park and already has levelled twice, mostly staying hidden and walking on the paths adjacent to people sitting on benches.

It wasn’t long until he arrived at the clearing, where there was a playground with couple of children running around and some occupied tables on the little mound from there.

Seeing no reason to not go there and have a look, he did so. Yet, when he arrived at the other side, he has found something he was not expecting, there was a small water stream flowing at the foot of the other side of the hillock he was standing on. Seeing further, he looked at the expanse of the village, seeing the park connected to houses at one side, mansions or little closed-off districts at the other and the warehouses from the way he came. In the distance, now not so big, yet certainly impressive, he could see three Hokage faces sculpted in the rock.

‘Like it, what you see?’ – would be a cliché line, that he would like to hear right now. Sadly, reality is often perceived individually, and there is no one at the tables who would have wanted to hear about his experiences. In fact, no one really cared that he was here, or for his opinion.

‘Or maybe they would, and I am just alienating myself on purpose.’ – he thought while looking at the merry group of people socialising at tables. He shrugged, knowing he wouldn’t find answers anyway, mainly, due to his language barriers.

‘Yet it is damn impressive.’ – Askuna looked one last time around, and went to one of the nearby tables, that was unoccupied. He took out an orange juice, which he bought at one of the stores before, and drank some of it, positively surprised that he can perceive flavours. Though, he corrected himself, he ate chocolate chopsticks before, so he already knew that.

‘Though, it makes me wonder, if actually eating stuff, would satiate my ‘hunger’ need.’ - Askuna mused to himself, looking at expanse of massive trees, from the direction he came from. In fact, some of the ‘early factory’ buildings were barely visible from there. Then, he continued his earlier thought – ‘Well, no use in thinking about it, it can be easily checked later’ – he shrugged, directing his refreshed concentration on nearby people.

They weren’t talking about ground-breaking things, but it was important to learn about everything. Where else, he would learn how to describe weird uncles, clearly cheating boyfriend, or annoying parents.

He stayed there for fifteen minutes, sometimes earning confused glances from the people, but generally just sipping his juice and looking at the different places in the village, which he would like to visit in the future.

‘This world is certainly beautiful, in its own way. Still, when people can’t share their appreciation of it with anyone, all thoughts are possible. Who would stop a person, if they thought up in their head, that they want to tear all of this apart, for some ideological reason. Worse, what if that person is surrounded by similar thought minded people or Yes-Sayers?’ – he pondered in general manner, but in a way, it was connected to him.

If he stayed inside his mind for too long, alone, with all the power at his fingertips, who would stop him from becoming a monster? From trampling other peoples’ homes, dreams, futures for his own quest to dominance and power?

‘Madara, with his dream to force everyone into slumber of happiness, Deidara, who looking at this village, would want nothing more than just to explode it away, seeking sick satisfaction from his ‘art’.’ – he contemplated, but then grinned – ‘Though the explosion on that scale would certainly look impressive in real person…, well if I survived it, that is.’ – he frowned a little.

‘I need to master the language ASAP, and make some connections with people, or else I’ll end like all those maniacs from the show.’ – having reached his conclusion, he decided that his legs want to keep going, so he went to the direction he came from.

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On his way out, he levelled up sneak once more, bringing him up to 22nd level mastery. Overall, spending time in the park has surprisingly elevated his spirits, and possibly made him brainwashed to love the village.

‘As if.’ – smirked Askuna to himself at the internal joke, of the village’s government system. Even wild theories came up to his mind, like, that those parks were created, just for the reason of people to get drunk in the feeling of protectiveness…. Which seems totally possible’ – considered Askuna.

Oddly enough, there seemed to be a heated conversation going close to the path he was going through, right now. It was coming from the back of the warehouse. Couple meters away from the path, and he would have barely heard anything, if not for his subtitles.

Why not listen to it, while being extremely suspiciously and infringe on their privacy laws? Having inspiring idea, and not wanting to sully his clothes, which as he discovered earlier can be sullied with blood; he used his inventory to take off all of his outer clothes, baring briefs, and wiggled like a worm below a shrubbery.

The situation felt hilarious to him, yet his stealth indicator was telling him, that he was well hidden, so he shrugged mentally, because it is not like he is in some weird isekai story, read by some other people, so no one would know…. On the other hand, it is highly likely that he is in isekai story.

‘Screw it, it is too late anyway, maybe author would have some decency to skip the previous part, right?’ – Askuna’s ponderings turned into a weird alley.

Certainly, he would not. The conversation was as follows:

“Listen, Bernon, I make good money, really good, thanks to this damn war, but you know very well, how the math works.” – the bulky man was explaining to the greasy lanky man. He continued by pointing out – “My twenty people, can manufacture one-hundred-thirty standard kunai in two days, no more.” – “But- “- the man called Bernon tried to answer, but the man stopped him.

“Shut up! Some of my men are working twelve hours a day! I can’t push them further, no matter if you, Mr. Shibukawa, or even the Hokage, wants those kunai, I can’t produce another 1200 in two weeks on top of the current orders.” – The man stood his ground, clearly annoyed by the other man, even trying to make him to reconsider.

“You know this very well, that we can’t fail this order Omuga! At least a part of those 1200, I’ll find someone else to forge rest. Do 800 at least.” – pleaded Bernon to Omuga, with his hands clasped before his chest in begging motion.

“600.” – stated Omuga with impassive face, void of any emotions.

“Thank you! You-“ – started answering Bernon.

“Two and a half normal rate.” – Omuga cut the man off.

The man’s smile became strained a little – “Surely, you jest!” – he tried to evoke some kind of reaction from Omuga, but seeing him solid like stone, he gulped and tried last time – “Omuga, we know each other, what? Five years? You surely know, that if Mr. Shibukawa hears of this deal, he would kill me, right?” – Bernon looked scared – “You wouldn’t ruin me, would you?”

Omuga stared, hard, at Bernon, before leaning his face toward his face and articulating out each word separately – “Two. And. A. Half.”

Bernon relented first – “Fine.” – he took out his hand for a handshake, while grinning. Seeing him change so abruptly made Omuga scowl at him, before clasping the offered hand. – “Let’s sign the contract.” – Bernon said, while taking out couple of papers and a pen from the satchel and putting them on top of it.

Both men were filling the papers with a practiced ease, most of it was probably written already, hence it took them less than two minutes to complete the ordeal. And then, after excusing himself, Bernon left the back of the manufactory with a small smirk at his face. Askuna, in the meantime, was still pretending to be a one big caterpillar, so he wiggled back out of the bush and prepared to put on his clothes.

Then he facepalmed, looking at his dirt-stained body. Sure, he spared his clothes a wash, but he also has gotten quite dirty himself.

‘Disgusting’ – summed up Askuna looking at his visage.

Originally, still in the bush, he made in spur of the moment decision to follow the man, to see who is buying weapons, in case he has forged some latter; but now all his plans were ruined. He was just in his briefs, full of dirt, so he decided to find some water, hopefully without anyone seeing him.

‘Yet, it is stupid. There is high chance I’ll get spotted, or worse some ninja spots me and detains me for being improper, or alternatively will ask me some difficult for me to answer questions.’ – Askuna analysed his answer, heavily leaning towards just putting his clothes on the grime and scurrying home to take a shower.

Yet, before he had done abovementioned, the battle music started to play out. His eye jumped to his indicator telling him, that he has been discovered. He reflexively turned around.

After being stunned for a second, he paused the world. In front of him was, frozen in time, hissing squirrel like animal, there were no signs of any other person or creature nearby.

Now, clothing up and taking out a knife, could be a good decision to take, but Askuna wasn’t sure if it is just a decoy, or someone else was hiding and observing him from somewhere. Nah, it is a lie, a chance for that is as minuscule… as a random squirrel attacking him in the park.

No, the real reason was much simpler. He didn’t want to catch rabies or other nasty disease. Therefore, he resumed the world and started running away towards the warehouse.

Thankfully, the squirrel didn’t pursue. Unfortunately, there was a person there smoking tabaco.

The person spotted him immediately coming out of the treeline to the small backyard. It seems, he had just started smoking. He blinked two times in a quick succession, looking at the almost naked, dirty man running in his direction. Smartly, he dropped the tabaco and bolted away.

“…” – Askuna stopped, right there, just for a second and looked back to the treeline. The red dot was indicating that the enemy was still there, but they weren’t in combat, as the music stopped. Additionally, he regained his hidden status.

He started to walk to the other side of the forest, fully intending to get changed there and go home, but his invisibility was broken, and he has heard from the corner behind him.

“Wait!” – Askuna stopped and turned to the man peeking from the corner – “What are you doing?” – he was asked by the man.

“Wait.” – Askuna answered back, then he went past the closest shrubbery and hid himself. When his stealth told him, that he was hidden, he used inventory to put on the clothes on himself. Unluckily, the dirt underneath has unfortunately stayed. He came out of the clearing, clothed and with his bag in hand. He was walking toward direction of the man while scratching his tummy.

“What did you want?” – Askuna asked the man, using one of the learned phrases today, or hopefully something closed to it.

To say, that the man was bewildered by his behaviour, would be an understatement. His mouth was fully opened at the Askuna’s brazen way of ignoring his previous actions. Honestly, he seemed to struggle to find correct words, for that, Askuna felt almost guilty.

“Daijobu?” – asked Askuna, which hopefully meant ‘are you okay?’, but then he reflected on what he has learned today and repeated with an addition – “Daijobu, desu ka?”. Now, it felt correct.

That seemed to strike the man out of his stupor, and he answered – “Yes, but you…”

“Onigiri?” - Askuna pulled, out from his bag, the ball of rice packed in some tissues, that he has bought in the morning.

The man blinked, looked at it and answered – “No, thank you.”

Askuna grunted and shoved it back to his bag.

The man started asking – “So, are we pretending that never … happened? “– for which he was rewarded with a stare down by Askuna, who looked him right in the eyes for couple of seconds unnervingly. Proving his smartness, yet again, the man held up his hands before him in a gesture of surrender and placated – “Okay, okay…. Say, do you want to wash your hands and face, or something?”

“Yes please.” – Askuna answered. Though internally he still felt weirded out, by that person, and he was even a bit warry. It wasn’t normal for a person to stick their hand in an unknown, well, willingly.

‘He may be weirder than me!’ – Askuna had a frightening thought, making a bit of a distance between him and the other guy, while he was led to the opened faucet, that seemed to be connected to one of the buildings.

“Is that okay? I can’t really lead not employees to the showers.”, the man asked, trying to seem helpful.

Alarm bells ringed in Askuna’s mind, and he looked at every corner, seeking deception. Seeing none, the only targets left were possibly the water, or the man using his time of vulnerability, when he was cleaning, to stun him.

“So… Employee. Kunai making?” – Arthur started the small talk in his pseudo-Japanese, while positioning himself sideways to the other person, while opening the faucet. He left some smudge of dirt from his hand on it, which he swiftly washed away with little water.

He paused the world, and checked his active effects for any aliments, yet having found none, and not seeing any wrong intention in the other man, like a sign of being prepared to attack, he started to clean his hands and face.

‘I didn’t check the roof for traps.’ – chided himself Askuna, for being careless.

The man looked perplexed at his words, then answered – “Oh… yes, we are capable of fulfilling orders for different varieties of kunai.”- then he started laughing awkwardly and added – “It is sometimes a monotonous job, but it has a decent pay, and there is always need for more kunai, so it seems stable, with minimal risk of injury.”

Askuna finished cleaning himself, and the man started saying apologetically – “Sorry, I don’t have any…” – Askuna takes off the towel from his bag, which to be honest was a little wet, but still better than nothing – “towels…huh.” – the man ends his sentence.

“Everything is okay. Thanks.” – answered Askuna, using one of the common phrases.

That seemed to have improved the man’s mood a little and he said - “Well, I must say, that you have scared me a little earlier, you know, I can’t say that I recommend for you to be repeating whatever you were doing back then.”

Askuna just nodded and said - “Yes, sorry.” – then he decided to play a charade, with limited words that he could say, as he would like to get employed and check what his Skyrim system is capable of.

“No problem, no problem. Don’t worry about it.” – the other guy said and started to rub his head with his hand, while bowing slightly each time when he has said ‘no problem’.

“So… job?” – Askuna asked the man, starting his tomfoolery.

“What job?” – asked the guy for clarification, now a little confused, judging by his frowned eyebrows.

“I. want. Job. kunai making.” – nodded Askuna, as if it were obvious and he even crossed his arms on his chest.

His strategy was a simple one, make the other person think, that there is nothing wrong with their speaker, that they just misunderstood something.

It clearly backfired.

“You speak weird. Are you a foreigner?” – asked the man while scratching his head, still with furrowed forehead.

‘Are there even foreigners there?’ – wondered Askuna for a split second.

“No.” – answered Askuna, though the man didn’t look convinced by his noncommittal answer. Nevertheless, Askuna bowed a little and pressed a hand to his chest – “My name is Askuna.”

‘Now that I think about it, what is my family name? It could be quite important, to know it… like for example when introducing to people or signing for job, shit.’ - Askuna realized his blunder.

“Askuna…-san?” – the man asked, asking for clarification.

“Yes.” – Askuna confirmed, while nodding.

“Well, nice to meet you, Askuna-san, my name is Riketeru Owanagi, you can call me Owanagi-san.” – the man bowed, with the strange Japanese way of breaking their back in the middle.

“Nice to meet you, Owanagi-san.” – Askuna said and the silence stretched between them for a second, which could be, or could not be originating from Askuna’s weirded out from social norms introduction.

Yet, it may not be seen as strange, because characters in Anime normally used first name basis for all social interactions. ‘Though, they were usually ninja… Did he screw up again’ – Worried Askuna a little.

“Well, how about we go to the foreman, and he takes it from there? I think, soon moulded forms will be done, so I’ll have to do my part of the job.” – the man stated with small awkward laugh.

“Okay.” – Askuna answered and then they travelled in silence from between the buildings, towards the largest hall visible.

They entered through the side entrance, and he was led up the stairs on the constructed from metal upper floor, where there seemed to be an office and some entry points for easier to access smelter shafts. There were also huge vents that probably led to chimneys, that diverted away any produced fumes.

Owanagi spotted the door was ajar and knocked on it, shouting – “Omuga-san! There is someone who wants to get a job!”

Askuna wasn’t surprised at the volume of the speech used, as it was probably necessary due to loud noises created in the hangar.

“Let him in!” – there was a shout from with-in.

Askuna and Owanagi nodded to each other, and Askuna entered fairly large office, with a man sitting at the end of it, who was staring at him.

‘Does he like observe how people act, when scrutinized? Some kind of intimidation tactic, or maybe to know person better from their body language?’ – wondered Askuna, while going up before the desk at which the man was sitting at.

“Any experience in the work field?” – Omuga asked him an introductory question.

“No.” – he would have said forging or smithing, if he had known the correct words.

The man before him spoke with practiced ease – “Then you will work as a support, in tying the ropes on kunai, learning how to sharpen and smoothen blemishes, as well as doing delivery jobs of iron ore or coal to smelter, or helping in securing goods.” – the man spoke all of that in one breath, then took a second of pause and continued – “You’ll receive 5 Ryo per hour for now, if you learn fast and don’t screw up you will be able to get promotion and more responsible duties.” – then he asked – “Do you agree?”

“Yes.” – Askuna answered.

“Good.” – the man said, then took out the form, and commanded – “Give me your id.”

Askuna didn’t know what id he was talking about, but it was probably something which he should have on him, so he ‘made an effort’ of searching for it, in his pockets, then he took out the towel and bathrobe from the bag and said dumbly – “Onsen.”

“Idiot! It is crime to walk during the war without an identification!” – the man shouted at him, then pinched his nose, before continuing – “I will have to report it to the Police, if you don’t show up with it, say, in an hour, so run, or it becomes a mess.”

Askuna, did as was told, he didn’t know where his id would supposedly be, but he just ran back to his home. He didn’t know the layout very well, so he was trying to stick mainly to the main roads.

The village in itself was quite strange, it had some places, that occasionally looked like small forests, all with streams of water running and sometimes some clearings were present, yet sometimes it was like a middle of a well-developed city.

The changes in scenery where so random and sometimes even exuberated into extremities, that Askuna felt it quite off putting, yet, nonetheless, beautiful in its own madness.

However, he didn’t have much time to consider the mishmash of an environment he found himself in, as he paused the world to consult his virtual world map, for directions.

‘I screwed up…. Shit’ – was the only intelligent thought which Askuna had. He tried to spot something, anything in his 180 degrees of frozen vision, which could potentially be used as a boost to move up to the higher elevation, where he wanted to go, but nothing seemed feasible, short for climbing one particular tree.

Not wanting to backtrack, he performed his first in the life, tree climbing exercise. He hugged the tree at the waist height with his arms, and then hugged it, but this time with his legs. He moved his arms higher in some sort of propelling or wiggling movement and caught it again with his legs.

His strange physique came in quite handy, making him not hurt by the tree’s trunk, as well as giving him necessary hug-crushing strength.

He went quite high, and noticed, that there was some boy staring at him at the ground, so he waved at him with one hand, and looked sideways, trying to see the upper floor behind him.

‘What now?’ – he pondered, before trying to release his legs and hold with just hands. Yet, he didn’t really know how to crouch with them horizontally on the trunk, without losing much of his hugging strength away.

Well, not like he would die, by falling from this height, right? He said, while looking at what have looked like, at least 6 meters separating him from the ground.

‘Yeah. Nope.’ – he thought before he started to climb back down, before mentally adding – ‘No way I’m risking it. Let’s be real.’

He went to the ground and met the boy looking at him with a frown. – ‘Yeah, it sucks kiddo.’ – was Askuna’s only thought before looking for the other, more manageable route.

He found one, which would eat away a little of his precious time, but he decided to just keep it simple, stupid, to not waste more time.

People gave him some weirded glances when he was running, but he doubted he would be on time, if he didn’t do so.

Back-alleys hell was the worst part, yet because he didn’t tire and run continuously, well, aside from that one failure, therefore he arrived in around 20 minutes.

He went up his stairs and met some middle-aged lady calling out to him – “Wakateru-san, good afternoon.”

He stopped in place, nodded and said before running to his house – “Good afternoon, sorry!”.

When he was opening the door, he heard her saying – “What have you been doing, Wakateru? Mr. Lanagi told me that you didn’t go to bakery today, and he said that if he meets you, he will twist your head off.” – she clearly sounded worried, and came close to Askuna – “What is happening, Askuna? You need to go to the Mr. Lanagi to apologise, he may -…”

Askuna opened the door and found it quite hard to listen to the dialogue, so he had to pause the world for a second to read some of it, and then resumed it.

“- forgive you, if you will go and apologize to him.”

‘Lady, I’m in hurry right now, though thank you for telling me, what is my name.’ – Askuna mused, before certain thought entered his mind.

He dropped his keys and said – “Oh.” – before bending and grasping them. Then he deactivated his sneak mode, and immediately shot up, startling the woman a little.

He looked at her, and realized, there was a flavour text on her, reading – ‘Shirone Akagawa’. Yet, there was no talk button, nor pressing ‘E’ did anything. Still, knowing her name may be useful.

“Thank you, Mrs Akagawa… sorry.” – he said while bowing a little and going into his house. He would have said later, alas, he didn’t know the word, so he just waved a little to the woman, and closed the door.

Inside, he looked around. His focus immediately taken by the mirror and the cupboard underneath. He searched, through it looking for what could be an id, but he found nothing. He went to his bedroom, and looked inside the chest, that was there, yet he didn’t find anything of such sort.

‘Where could it be?’ – wondered Askuna, while looking at the other cupboards and cabinets.

Finally, in one of the cabinets, he has found a plate with his photo, with what he assumed was his family name and surname. He took it and put it in his pocket and left his bag behind in the house.

‘I’ll clean up later’ – reassured Askuna himself, then closed the doors with his key, and ran to the warehouse. Yet, he has chosen a different route, than the one which he came from.

He went to the balustrades, before a certain tree, which he has given up on before. He climbed the protection and jumped two meters distance, straight at the tree.

He landed on it and was hugging it for his dear life.

“Hahaha!” – he started laughing while climbing down, he didn’t receive any damage for his stunt. When he was at the ground, he realized that there was no audience in the form of the kid, so he made fake sad façade, as if bothered by it.

If he arrived with a slight grin on his face, to the foreman with his id, who would be able to tell?

End of chapter 2.