Having a rest

[Uka]

As the landscape shifted from a shoreline to inland the change was quite breathtaking. Whilst the vegetation was quite low and relatively contained on the sandy beach it was fairly abundant and even overgrowing in some areas. The further in she walked the more this difference started drawing her attention. The overgrown areas became a lot more maintained as more and more farms were coming into view.

She stopped at the top of a small hillside, taking the time to take in the view that revealed itself in the lowlands below. The small village that stood in front of her was completely surrounded by a large variety of farms, wheat, grapes, animals... anything you could think of, and it all was so... ordered, so well-position. It really was a sight to behold. The people all scurried around, performing various tasks and not having any time to deal with the small-stature girl that was looking at them. Her completely tattered clothes weren't really standing out much, considering this area did appear to be poor, not that she herself realised it, and many people did have holes in their clothes, likely deciding it wasn't worth it to fix their working clothes. In a way they weren't wrong, considering how likely that was to happen in the harsh reality of farming work.

After standing there for a few moments the girl would finally continue on, taking a right on the crossroads in front of her and beginning to circle around the outskirts of the village, following a waist-height rock wall around one of the farms. She would slowly extend her hand out to her side in order to touch the golden crop, her fingers gently touching it before she quickly retracted it and glanced down. Something didn't feel right. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it just seemed off...

As she neared the edge of the town she would come to a halt next to a small gate in the fence, taking note of a rather large and tattered grey trench coat. It appeared to have about as many holes as her current clothes and had a fair few smears on it. Pinned on it was a single note - For those who need it. Without much thought the girl would carefully remove the note and wrap the coat around herself. It felt a lot better with it than without, not that she had felt uncomfortable before... the feeling was rather difficult to put into words, but so were a lot of things. At least for her.

One step turned into another until she had completely lost count. How long had passed she didn't know, but she once again found herself on the outskirts of another small village. Once more there was a small hill overlooking it with a rather large tree right at the top. The girl slowly made her way over to it, leaning on the trunk as she slid down into a sitting position, wrapping the coat tightly around herself and placing her hands in the rather over-sized pockets as she set about observing the village below as the sun was slowly going down.

This one seemed to be busier than the previous one and somehow the people appeared to be dressed a little bit better. There wasn't any holes in their clothing and they all seemed to be rather... happy? Yes that word seemed to match. They were all smiling as they brought out tables and chairs to the middle of a large opening in the middle of the village. One after another each household took out large wooden tables, placing them one next to another in order to form one large table, placing chairs on either side as the women set about taking out something placed on large circular surfaces. Children were running around and causing a ruckus as a group of men stacked trees on a pile and brought over a strange-looking creature. It didn't seem to be moving at all and the people who had brought it over seemed really happy about it being there. Strange.

She would lean her head back onto the bark of the tree as she continued quietly observing, the only thing breaking the silence was the joyful shouts coming from the village and the growling sound coming from underneath the tree on top of the small hill overlooking the village....

 

[Azai Momotaro]

Azai Momotaro walked around wearing his usual blue, black and white combat kimono, breath a bit heavy, sweating heavily. Resting on a bench in a small village outside of the main village, the boy order something to drink and looked up to the sky. As he waited for his order to be prepared the boy reflected on the past couple of days and what had happened to him, it all started with an unplanned visit to school grounds and how that kicked start his dream to becoming one of the world’s strongest shinobi. Looking at the palms of his hand, the boy knew that even despite all of his training so far, he is no where near his goal and that he will have to work harder in order to reach the level he wants for himself, but this journey can only be taken one step at a time. Clinching his fist the boy looked back at the sky once more, this time his gaze was sharp and focused.

Seconds later he got his drink and proceeded to drink the whole thing rather quickly, turning to the store owner and paying her, the boy bowed and took off to the opposite side in a jog in order to finish what he started. Feeling a bit tired by the weighted accessories, the boy pushed through till he reached the edge of this small village. Stopping and then kneeling down, resting his palms on his knees the boy took a couple of seconds to catch his breath. The boy then stood up straight and prepared to turn back around and walk all the way back home. But before he could do that, he saw something. And odd looking girl leaning on a tree, for some reason she stood out and the boy was curious. Mulling over whether to approach her or not will only take him three seconds as he immediately walked up to her.

“Excuse me Miss, I am sorry if I am being rude but I never saw you before are you from here. Ah where is my manners, I jumped in right with the questions. Allow me to introduce myself my humble name is Azai Momotaro, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

 

[Uka]

As the hustle and bustle in the village continued the girl would bring her knees up to her chest, wrapping her hands around them and resting her chin on them. Her gaze would follow a random individual as they continued their preparations. They all appeared to be dressed in fairly earthy colours, none of them really wearing anything particularly... colourful? Yes that was the word she was looking for. Even the children, rather especially the children were wearing darker clothes, though considering they were playing on the ground and practically rolling around on it that was probably a rather wise decision on their parent's part.

A figure dressed in rather colourful clothes ran into the village before suddenly slowing down and plopping down on one of the few benches around one of the busier places, a woman bringing him a strange looking object, which he promptly brought up to his face. The contrast between his actions and the other people was rather intriguing for her and she couldn't help but follow the boy with her gaze, even as he neared her. As he came to a halt she would still be looking in his direction, her face still resting on her knees.

At a glance it would be rather difficult to guess her age, appearing not much older than her mid to late teens. Her eyes were larger than average, giving her an even younger-looking complexion. She has fairly light skin, though from what could be seen from her neck it was much, much darker, even strangely so, though it was rather difficult to make out why in the shade of the tree.

"I don't think so."</GLOW><i></i> The small-statured woman would respond to his initial question, growing quiet as she continued to study him calmly, her expression not really changing at all and remaining completely neutral. "What does rude mean?" She would then ask after the pause, her expression finally shifting into one of light confusion. It felt as if it should be something she knew, but it wasn't coming to her. Like there was a gap where the meaning of that word should be within the puzzle box that was her mind at the moment. Her attempts to piece it together from the context of the sentence didn't quite work. What sorry had to do with that word and not having met her before didn't really give her enough to work with honestly. There was another word as well. <GLOW glow="steelblue">"Or acquaintance?"<i></i> The girl would add after a very light pause, speaking her mind as she continued trying to figure them out in the background rather unsuccessfully...

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Nozomi lingered at the store that Momotaro bought his drink, ordering a few ramune sodas, each being different flavors ranging from peach to melon-flavored. Why were melons so damn expensive here in the Lightning Country? One would figure with the treaty between Lightning and Fire that some kind of trade agreement could have been made to import some melons or even some modeling kits from the other nation. As much as she despised the leadership from that village, finding their propensity to kill children (or allow the killing of) absolutely reprehensible, she did like aspects of their culture and some of the goods and services provided in the Fire Country. She placed the other drinks into her bag-of-holding and popped over the top, pressing the glass ball into the bottle before taking a drink from the sugary drink. The urge to say a motherly thing to Momotaro like 'slow down or you'll choke' was strong, but she resisted the urge out of fear of embarrassing her student.

She was following Momotaro during his training regimen. She originally wanted him to just swing his sword a thousand times and use a heavy rod to swing into a dummy, mainly to strengthen his hip-flexers, but he insisted on doing this marathon-level run with weights strapped to his body. Wasn't something she'd want to do, but who was she to say no to self-inflicted torture caused by her own student. Well, she had a line that wouldn't be crossed. If she knew the boy would put himself into actual torture or put himself into any situation leading to needless suffering, she'd put a stop to that. However, this suffering was self-inflicted and self-improving so she allowed it. His body, his choice. The moment he stopped to take a breather was the same moment she took the time to slowly start to catch up to him, sipping on the ramune soda.

It seemed something caught Momotaro's eyes, causing Nozomi to raise a brow before following him slowly and sipping her drink, now about half-empty. He introduced himself to the estranged woman with a strange response. Did she have an issue with the dialect? Was she a foreigner? Who knew. Nozomi stepped up next to Momotaro and took another sip from her drink. She had pink hair that was longer on the right side of her head than it was anywhere else. She wore a form-fitting white leather outfit with an attached cloak. A hood hung over her back, out of sight from the front. Upon her back was a large (almost comically large) spear that could have been mistaken for a zanbatou or other anti-cavalry weaponry. At her hip was a strange looking red-sword with an eye upon the hilt. The eye moved strangely on it's own as if looking for something.

The strangest part of this pink-haired woman were the grouping of 3 red dots upon her forehead, red marks upon her cheeks, and the fact that her skin glowed. Yes, she gave off her own light. She also had heterochromia with her right eye being a prussian blue color and her left eye was a yellow color. Upon closer inspection of her left eye, one could notice that it was a fake, glass eye. She turned her attention towards the woman that Momotaro was speaking to. With her free-hand, she rummaged through her bag of holding and pulled out a peach flavored ramune soda and handed it towards the woman.

"Rude is something that isn't nice," she answered. She tried to find another way to convey to the woman what rude meant, assuming she had issues understanding their language. Containing her emotions was extremely difficult after being turned into the Avatar of the Sun where she wore her emotions plainly for everyone to see. "Rude would be if I just walked up to you and shoved you. Something that you wouldn't find to be nice," she said before answering her second question. "That's someone you only met and don't really know," she answered. She turned her eyes towards Momotaro and took the final sip of her drink before placing the empty bottle into the bag-of-holding.

She couldn't blame the boy for rushing over here to see how this person was. She had a pretty face and Momotaro was at the age where beauty was something to cherish. If she was his age, she'd have probably fallen for a pretty face like that as well. "Kanagawa Nozomi. What's your name?" she said introducing herself and then asking for the stranger's name. She looked at the woman's tattered clothing. She started to figure out whether or not she should buy her some replacements.

[Topic Entered]

 

[Azai Momotaro]

Momotaro stared at the young looking girl, she was bizarre in both appearance and manners. The boy was not sure what kind of air she exudes, but it felt like its almost…. Lifeless. Not sure if he is just imagining stuff or if there is something wrong with the girl, he decided to ignore her behavior and just act naturally. He was going to answer the two question posed by the bizarre girl, but he was beaten to the punch by his pink haired teacher. The boy turned to her, he knew that she was not exactly a fan of his choice of training but he went through with it anyway. Crossing his arms he nodded as Kanagawa answered both her questions.

“yes so its just as she said, from the looks of it, you don’t seem to think my first question was rude. And well while we may be acquaintances right now, nothing stopping us from being friends. If you are not from around here, then what brought you here ?”

The boy questioned his gaze was fixed onto the young looking girl, not moving from it. But it was not aggressive or confrontational, it was instead a warm gentle look complemented with the happy expression his face made.

 

[Uka]

As soon as she had asked her questions she noticed a figure approaching out of the corner of her eye, diverting her attention over towards the other woman. Normally one would find the new arrival's appearance rather peculiar, however that wasn't the case to her. Rather than strange she found the woman a bit peculiar. She had seen quite a few people during the time she had been walking around on these roads, but she hadn't seen anyone with such a intriguing hair colour.

Due to her sheer interest it took her a few moments to notice the bottle that was being offered to her, glancing down at it without reaching for it, but rather remaining in the same position as before and studying the object. It appeared to be glass and had some form of liquid in it, but other than that it was completely foreign to her. The girl carefully looking it over for a good twenty or so seconds more before slowly extending her gloved right hand towards it, the coat completely covering her arm.

She would slowly wrap her fingers around the bottom part of the bottle, a light crushing sound emanating from it. The girl would suddenly relax her fingers slightly, trying again after a few moments and managing to carefully grip it this time. If allowed to she would slowly retract her hand, placing the glass object on her knee and observing it with what could be described as an unnatural curiosity, or rather the curiosity of a child that had found something new. "Thank you."<i></i> She said without really knowing why. It just felt like the right thing to do in this situation.

"Something not nice."<i></i> She would repeat after a few moments. "Someone you only met."<i></i> The girl would continue to study the glass bottle, slowly picking it up again and turning it around a couple of times as she noticed the liquid moving around as she did so. After a few more moments she would finally look away and over to Momotaro as he addressed her again. "I don't think so."<i></i> The small-statured girl would answer, growing quiet for a few moments and glancing away, clearly thinking. After a good half a minute she would finally speak up again, looking between the two. "Around here? Name? .....I don't know."<i></i> Was the only answer that came to her mind to both their questions. It was one of those moments when she was drawing a complete blank once more. It felt like she should know, much like with the words from before but she just couldn't find the knowledge where she thought it would be. The only effect she found from thinking about it was her head starting to hurt, so she just stopped. If it wanted to come to her it would, but for now it was an elusive truth.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Amnesia? She wondered if this was self-inflicted through repressing memories or if the person suffered some kind of physical trauma. Maybe they just got out of a coma which caused them to lose their memories. Whatever the reason is, she took it upon herself to make sure this person felt comfortable. She wasn't able to deal with mental injuries, especially when it came to memories. She hooked her finger at the girl and turned her back to her. "For now, I'm going to call you Kozue until you remember your name, alright? Anyway, follow me. We need to get you out of those rags and into something a bit more presentable," she said as she hooked her finger to beckon her to come along.

"Peach-boy. If she doesn't follow, drag her along. Consider that as part of your training," she said as she continued. Why she decided to name the nameless girl Kozue for the time being? Well, it's a name she wouldn't have issues forgetting. It was her actual name, after all. Whether she got up to follow willingly or Momotar started to drag her along was of no consequence to her. She walked at a slow pace to keep at the same pace as the nameless girl (temporarily named Kozue) and her student. "So, Kozue, where did you come from? Pretty sure you probably don't remember where you grew up but you probably went somewhere due to how beat-up your clothes looked," she said, making a comment on the condition of her clothes. Unacceptable. Unless she got into a fight with several bears, her clothes shouldn't be in such poor shape.

Nozomi stopped and turned to look at the one she named Kozue. "I do have a question for you though. Are you a shinobi?" she asked. Even if someone had forgotten their past, instinct would kick in even if they had forgotten. She quickly pulled out her Spear of Destiny and motioned to stab the weapon into the woman. Of course she'd land short, not actually trying to hurt her. No. She wanted to draw out this woman's instincts. If she was a shinobi, she'd react accordingly. If she wasn't a shinobi, she'd probably flinch or cower in fear. If she was, indeed, a shinobi -- the mere act of deflecting or dodging or even using a twitchy Kawarimi Target may bring back SOME memories. Again, her intent wasn't to actually hurt the woman, but to act like it.

"What I did just now. That was rude," she said. "And I apologize for it. Was hoping to get an answer and probably jog your memory a bit."

 

[Azai Momotaro]

The boy with the jet black hair was confused by the strange young girl, he had heard about amnesia before but never seen a victim of it so this was a new experience for him. He was struggling to think of a name to call the strange girl, luckily his teacher came up with a temporary name for her and while she at it she gave Momo a nickname. A nickname that he did not mind, in fact you can say that he actually really liked it. The boy smiled and nodded towards Nozomi, it almost felt like all of his tiredness went away for a single moment.

“Yes Ma’am I will do it, alright Kozue-chan lets go. Nozomi sensei is a smart lady she will know how to help you and besides the village is nice and welcoming. So you will love it, so lets go ahead and get back I got a warn you I am pretty strong.”

Momo said in a mischievous tone as he kneeled down to hold Kozue’s hand, to her surprise the boy felt something strange. It was not metal, it was softer but at the same time he knew something may be wrong. Furthermore what happened next helped him think that Kozue’s is not indeed normal as no matter how hard he tried to pull her up, the girl barely moved an inch. He grunted and struggled, but no matter how hard he tried the girl barely moved an inch.

“oh wow, you are heavy. Are you using a ninjutsu ? perhaps earth style, because man I cant seem to make you budge. What do you think Nozomi sense--!!!”

The boy stopped mid sentence as he suddenly moved backwards in shock, when it looked like Nozomi was trying to hit Kozue, it was a shocking action, almost seemed out of place. The boy luckily received a quick explanation, his teacher was not aiming to kill the girl but instead test her reflexes, which is a relief to say the least.

 

[Uka]

Would continue observing the bottle once more as soon as the woman turned away from her. There wasn't anything interesting to see there and figuring out how this thing worked was far more intriguing at the moment. She wouldn't really notice the gesture, choosing to remain sitting in her spot and it was just business as usual once more. Everything was fine as is in her mind and moving wasn't something she was planning on doing at the moment.

The conversations would mostly fly over her head, though she would note the words being used. Not all of them were easy to understand, but it was enough to figure out what was happening and if she used the description she had received recently it was frankly rude. At least that was if she had understood right. The second Momo decided to try and follow orders she would stop playing with the bottle of soda, turning to look at him with what could be described as surprise. His rather futile attempts to get her to stand up. She wasn't really stopping him or resisting at all, but nevertheless he couldn't move her at all.

"I think the word strong must mean something different from what I remember."<i></i> The girl would note with a hint of confusion in her voice. She would allow him to try for a few more seconds before rather calmly placing the bottle of soda, which she was holding in the hand he wasn't attempting to tug, on the grass before slowly standing up to her feet, her gaze still on the boy even if she had to look up slightly in order to do so. Even standing up straight she was still a good ten or so centimeters shorter than him and overall smaller-statured for certain, even with the rather over-sized coat.

She would turn to look at Nozomi as she was addressed, trying to figure out yet another word she couldn't quite figure out. ' Shinobi?' She would ponder for a moment as the events played out. The second Nozomi aimed her spear the unsuspecting opponent was completely unprepared for it, well at least consciously she was. Her left hand would shoot up, aiming to grab the spear just below the spearhead and jerk it to the left just enough for it to avoid her head and be pulled away from Momo. The small-statured female would stare at the weapon for a few moments, glancing between it and her hand. If Nozomi was observant enough she would notice that the spear tore through the leather glove the girl was wearing and if she was to withdraw her weapon there would be no resistance, however there would also be no blood on it whatsoever. The wound would likely have been very shallow, but still it was strange.

"Rude."<i></i> She would state quietly, looking to Nozomi for a moment before placing her hands into her pockets and turning around to leave in the opposite direction to the two. Her mind was telling her to do that, even if she didn't really know why. Instinct one could call it or maybe self-preservation. It was a matter of getting away from the hostile situation and finding a better place. 'Rude' She thought again, taking the first step away....

[Attempting to leave]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Her spear was jerked to the side after being quickly grabbed by the stranger she called 'Kozue'. There was a tear in her glove, an unintended consequence, but there was curiously no blood that came from the wound. After seeing this, she lowered her weapon down to her side for a brief moment before resheathing it. Needless to say, the stranger didn't look happy about what just happened. Understandably, Nozomi nodded her head to the woman and gently brushed some of her pink hair to the side. This caused the one she named 'Kozue' to turn around and leave. "If you need any help with your memory, stop by Kumogakure! We have wonderful medical facilities that can help!" she shouted out. She wasn't here to make friends. If anything, she was more paranoid about the woman's capabilities and if she was lying or not. The safety of her student took high priority to her and she didn't need some con-artist or potential murderer running around.

She continued to watch the woman until she faded into the distance before turning her eyes towards Momotaro. "That's probably not the last time we'll be meeting her. Just keep your guard up while around her. She might not remember who she was but she is most certainly someone of formidable strength," she stated before rummaging through her bag-of-holding for a moment and pulled out another shinobi headset and placed the headset to her private frequency, saving it as a pre-set for the child. "My channel is set to Channel 7. Turn it to Channel 7 if you ever need to get a hold of me," she said before placing it into Momotaro's hand.

 

[Azai Momotaro]

What had happened was a surprising turn of event, but all of this made Momotaro think. Something was up, he knew that Kozue was not a normal person, that much was clear. If it was not from her lack of memory and weird behavior, then her metal like body also gave it away. He then walked to behind the girl a little bit and wanted to stop her using words only, as he ruled out the fact that force would be useful.

“Kozue san! Stop just a moment, I know you must be confused and scared. Why wouldn’t you the world is vast and hard to understand sometime, and you seem to have lost your memories but let us try to help you retrieve some of those memories and heck if we can’t maybe create new memories and live your life, so come with us to the village. Please turn back.”

The boy was obviously desperate, he doubted that his words will have any affect on Kozue but he had to try and say it, otherwise he would have some regret should he hear something happen to her in the future. Disappointed that she looks like she is actually going away the boy looked down, for a second looking defeated before he turned to Kanagawa wit a sad look in his eyes. He was certainly disappointed, he was a bit too young to understand why she did what she did, but he figured that it had to do with something regarding the safety of the village, after all Kozue could be a liar.

“I just hope she does not get into any kind of trouble, she is not normal. When I held her hand for a moment there, I felt something strange. She may have an artificial hand or something. Her attitude was weird, I just hope she is not in any trouble.”

He said as he received the headset from Nozomi, this was the first time the boy sees a device like this, it was interesting and its function was even better.

“so I can call you anytime I need something from you ? that’s awesome but do not worry Kanagawa sensei, I will make sure to use this wisely and sparingly I won’t bother you with a ton of needless updates.” Momo then felt his sword that he held on his waist in a sheath rumble a bit, he quickly figured what that was about, but he felt he was not ready for that yet. So the boy place his hand on the sword and it stopped rumbling, nervous the boy looked up to his teacher.

“now what ? do we go after her or just let everyone be aware of her presence and watch out for her, should she return?”

 

[Uka]

'Medical facilities' She would wonder for a few moments. Yet another word she didn't quite understand. The list really was growing the more people she met really. She had to do something about it.. eventually, but for the time being her instincts were doing all the talking and the legwork by the looks of things. She hadn't even noticed that pointy stick before her body had already reacted. Maybe that shinobi word could explain something. It was worth a shot.

The girl would pause for a brief moment, glancing back towards the boy as she pondered. She just felt like this was a dangerous situation and she thought it best to leave. It wasn't like she knew why, but it just was as it was. Her instinct had deflected that pointy stick away from her, so they were likely there to help her in that regard. It was a difficult thing to decide really. The boy seemed nice even if the lady was... rude? Yes that was the word, but the decision was only one in the end. After a moment she would briefly shake her head and continue walking forward and away once more...

[Not Actively stopped - Topic Left]
[Was a pleasure unfortunately this was the only thing I saw happening IC in this situation]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Nozomi just smiled at her protege after he took the device. She pointed into her ear, directing him to put it inside of his ear to use. It seemed that no matter how much her student pleaded with the stranger, she didn't seem to want return the kindness given to her. A lost puppy in a scary world will grow up to be a wolf; a wolf that would bare fangs at even the gods. She was an animal like that once before, but that was years passed. A time that she would rather forget even if those traumatic experiences were what shaped her into the person she was now. The stranger she named 'Kozue' was like glancing into a mirror. What she could have been if she continued on her path for longer. Who knows, maybe Nozomi, or rather Kozue (at the time), would have pushed away all of those bad memories and be in a similar situation as the stranger is now. Thankfully, she had an entire village to thank for her salvation.

She pulled her eyes away from the stranger for a moment back to her protege. "Don't worry about her. I think I jogged her memory enough. And besides," she said as she tapped the side of her head with her gloved hand. "Now that she knows about Kumogakure, if she really wanted help, she will seek us out," she said with a big and warm smile. She walked over to her student and placed a hand upon his head. "You're so sweet, Peach-Boy," she said ruffling his hair before leaning down to give him a hug. Her student still had a heart, something that most shinobi his age still had. Nozomi still cared but she has grown jaded to the world. Perhaps it was her upbringing as a child slave and child soldier that caused her to grow numb to the woes of living in a violent society.

She released her protege from the hug and took a step back. She turned her head towards the vanishing dot that was the stranger. "No. Let her go. It's up to her, now, to figure out what she wants. And don't worry about her safety. She might not look it, but she's actually pretty strong. I don't think you'll have much to worry about with that," she said before turning to look back to Momomtaro. It was like a switch was flipped and Nozomi's eyes looked like they were set ablaze. "Break time is over. Time to stop flirting with strange girls and get back to training. I'll make a damn fine swordsman out of you, Peach-Boy!" she said. She could be quite scary-looking to outsiders (and maybe even to Momotaro). "Get those damn weights back on, boy!"

 

[Azai Momotaro]

Momotaro just watched as the mysterious girl slowly disappeared from their view, worrying about her safety the boy tried to figure why he cared so much. Perhaps it was the fact that the girl seemed lost and unsure of herself that was worrisome. The boy then looked down decided to try and let the subject of the girl to go, she was her own person and she should be able to help herself and just like Nozomi said, if the girl needed help she would come to the village herself. Well hopefully this will not be the last time he will see “Kozue” again.

Azai then looked up at his teacher as she placed her hand on his head and ruffled his hair, he felt like a little kid when she did that. Then he was honestly surprised by her hug, it felt warm and familiar. Momotaro had no older siblings so he wondered if this what it will feel like to have siblings “sensei ?” he said a bit confused and unsure of how to think of all of this.

Then Nozomi broke the hug and looked at Kozue as she leaved the premise, and as Momo was starring his teacher’s heterochromia eyes and saw the moment it shifted to a more passionate and excited look as she turned back to face him. She then started to reassure him that Kozue will be fine, somehow Kanagawa can tell that she is strong but Momo could not, he decided to take his teacher’s word for it now.

The boy’s face then got extremely flushed with bright red, was he flirting with Kozue ? if so was it this obvious ? now Momotaro had a lot of things flooding to his mind, he would only snap back to reality when Nozomi orders him to but the weights back on and get back to training.

“Yes Master!!”

The boy said as he wore all of his face backwards towards where he came from and got ready to run back to the village with weights on.

“thank you Kanagawa Sensei!”

The boy said as he bolted towards the village, he got ready to finish what he started today.

(topic left)

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Her student took off like a bolt of lightning after putting the weights on. He was fast, too fast for someone his age. Clearing her throat, she re-adjusted the Bag of Holding to fit like a fanny-pack and started to pursue the boy. Was she going to take off like a streak of lightning? No. She trained often and now wasn't the time for her to go 'all-out' with the running. Keeping pace with him wasn't difficult, but it would require her to push herself a bit more than she expected. He had quite the lead on her, forcing her to push it a bit in order to catch up. When she finally caught up, she was able to slow her pace down before barking orders at him to push himself harder. Better to be pushed hard during training then pushed to the edge of death during a real-life combat scenario.

As Nozomi started to run and bark orders at Momotaro, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Standing beneath a tree was a shady figure wielding a laughably large scythe. Her eyes began to track the figure as she ran passed only to blink and have the figure disappear. These people that have been pursuing her, for whatever reason, are starting to get more and more bold by the day. Was it the same person she saw when her, Momotaro, and Airi went to the restaurant? What was their goals? Why was she involved in it? One may never know until she actually confronts them.

[Topic Left]