-Vol 5: A New Life-

-A little Visitor(1)-

“You can open your eyes now.” Hearing Kenshin, Yuki slowly opened her squeezed eyes and inspected her surroundings. A familiar basement with many cars parked greeted her.

“This! Isn’t this my apartment’s basement!” she couldn’t help but mumble in wonder. Just a few minutes before they were still in Iwaki and now its Mito that too her apartment’s basement! What sorcery is this? She wanted to yell.

“It is your apartment’s basement. We are now in Mito.” Kenshin smilingly replied. He had already expected what face she would make and wanted to see it real time, even someone as experienced as Vera took a few minutes before she could digest that there exists such a skill too.

Lo and behold, he was wasn’t disappointed. Yuki’s face repeatedly changed between shock and wonder, like she saw the sixth wonder of the world (the previous seven wonders were already destroyed by monsters so new five wonders were established). Imitating a fish that was out of the water, she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly as if trying to say something but didn’t find the right words for! Finally, she settled for a sigh and decided to not think about this matter anymore. For the nth time in her life, she marvelled the existence of skills.

“Sigh! I should have known this when you reached my location so soon. By the way, how long are you going to hug me?” Yuki shyly reproached him who was still hugging her tightly. In the hit of the moment, they both forgot that they were actually embracing each other in a very intimate way.

“AAh! I am sorry, I just!!” stuttering like a little girl, Kenshin slowly took her arms away from her, feeling a sense of loss at the moment. As for Yuki, although she was blushing, the sense of security that she felt while in his arms also disappeared after he took his arms back, causing a frown to appear on her face for an instant.

“It’s okay! So good night, okay.” After that she turned around, too shy to meet Kenshin’s eyes and walked towards the lift.

“Yuki! When can we meet again?” Kenshin’s question brought a smile onto her face as if she was waiting for that exact question, but she didn’t turn around and continued her walking.

“The day after tomorrow might be a good day for us to meet, what do you think?” but Kenshin tried once again, he didn’t want to leave their relationship at the hands of god again, once was enough. This time, he wanted to take the initiative, he didn’t want to lose her ever again.

“Mm! okay!” she agreed easily after going through her schedule in her head, the day after tomorrow was indeed a free day for her. She can use that day for their second date.

“mm! okay. Good night, have sweet dreams…” Kenshin said his goodbye to her and waited for her to use the lift. After that he turned around and ran at his top speed towards his home, its already past 10pm, the road was surprisingly empty except for a few people who looked like hunters.

After running for a few seconds, he entered a quiet region. There he stopped and stood like a statue. Raising his right hand over his head, he pointed his index finger to his back. A small ball of flame materialized and started to compress at a very high speed. The ball which was the size of a golf ball, gradually compressed and turned into the size of a dot. With just a thought from him, the ‘red dot’ made an arc through space and travelled at high speeds towards his shadow cast behind his back.

The speed of ‘red dot’ left behind a blazing trail, giving off an impression of a laser beam to any onlooker. But instead of making a hole in the ground, like it should have normally done, the ‘red dot’ magically entered inside his shadow. A few seconds later a burning frame came out of his shadow and rolled on the ground uncontrollably to put off the flames burning its body.

“Shi!! Shi!! Shii!!” while making a sound that’s neither an animal’s wail or human’s shout, the tiny figure rolled on the ground uncontrollably. But it had no effect on the fire, forget about putting it off, it didn’t even lose its radiance.

Now that the figure was on the ground rolling, Kenshin clearly saw it.

“A child!” exactly! It’s a child, a very young one too. It didn’t even look any older than Ellie, in fact, it looked a few years younger. Seeing this, he hurriedly put away his fire, it instantly vanished from its body. Feeling the fire no longer hurt its body, the lithe figure stopped rolling and opted to just lay on the ground and took deep breaths. At that time, Kenshin had a good look at her body, this child, it didn’t look like a normal human child.

Except for its facial features and overall outward appearance, that resembled humans, there were many things that a human shouldn’t have. For example, a pair of furry brown ears atop her head, or her hands which looked like claws instead of a delicate child's hands. Her eyes, they were bigger than normal human’s, and the pupils were slitted instead of round like normal. There were also patches of brown hair that looked like furs on her wrists and ankles. Including all her physical features, she resembled ‘the bestman’ from stories and games.

“A beastman!!” he was amazed at seeing this child.

The child finally regained some semblance of strength and tried to stand up or move around, but obviously, the burns caused by his flames were nothing to scoff at, not only they burn one’s physical body, but they also cause huge damage to their spirits and stamina. Seeing Kenshin looking at it, the child bared its little fangs and screeched at Kenshin threateningly. At the same time, it used all the strength on its body to back away slowly from him. It now feared Kenshin more than anything.

Kenshin noticed its presence when he just came out of the ground carrying Yuki at her basement. The fluctuation of MP due to the cancellation of skill gave away its location. But since Yuki was also there, and this thing didn’t have any malicious intents, he left it alone until he reached somewhere far. He was also surprised at the skill this child showed, borrowing someone’s shadow to hide and following all the way without him noticing, it was really something frightening. If it were not for that fluctuation, he would have completely unaware of this child’s presence in his shadow.

Although he wanted some answers, seeing this child’s animalistic behaviour, he abandoned all idea that he would get something from it. Exhaling a sigh, he retrieved an HP potion from his inventory and rolled it towards the child.

It instantly alerted the child, who backed away from the bottle. But it didn’t run away, or more precisely it couldn’t run away. It just curiously looked at the bottle and then towards Kenshin alternatively. Exhaling another sight, Kenshin retrieved another bottle of MP potion and slowly opened it in front of it, and then he put it in his mouth. With a ‘Gulu’ sound he drank it in a single gulp.

The child observed it and looked even more confusingly at Kenshin and the bottle before it gained some courage and grabbed the rolling bottle. Mimicking what Kenshin just did, it opened the glass cork and put the bottle in its mouth, trying to finish it in one gulp.

A cough* Cough*

Of course, it can’t! Not to mention its small mouth and throat, it's also the child’s first time drinking something like this. As a result, the water inside was too much for it to swallow in one big gulp and coughed out some of them form her mouth and nose. With red liquid dripping out of her mouth and nose, it looked pitifully at Kenshin like a bullied animal.

“Pft!!” and Kenshin couldn’t control his laughter after seeing it.