A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

For the second time ever Michelle felt as though she were standing on and in absolutely nothing. And then she was standing on solid ground again, feeling totally and completely disoriented. By the time she saw that she was standing in the middle of some sort of field, Vale appeared beside her, a smug look on his face.

That’s when Michelle remembered the promise that Vale had made to her back in the other world when she had finally persevered in her quest for answers by bugging him enough to get him to offer her this deal as a promise. “Okay, so first question,” she said, pouncing immediately. “How did you get all that money in such a short amount of time?”

Vale sighed before grinning. “I scared a rich person so badly that they just gave it to me,” he explained, still grinning a grin that seemed malicious to Michelle. It made her really start regretting going with him.

“And why did you just push me off of that rampart?” she asked indignantly, pushing on despite her fear of him now.

“Because the portal to the next world was right under it,” Vale said. The grin still hadn’t disappeared yet. It started to freak her out.

“How did you know? I could have died!”

“I just knew.”

“And you mocked me for saying that ‘I just knew’ that Liam was important!”

“You mean Prince William.”

“Why in the world are you still grinning?! I thought you didn’t express any emotions at all. I thought you didn’t even have emotions!”

“Because I am amused. Also, this is a new world so no one would know if I killed you right now.”

Michelle’s heart stopped for a moment at Vale’s words. ‘He’s really going to kill me?’ she thought, really starting to panic.

“I bet you’re still wondering exactly how I scared that person so badly he would just throw all his money at me…” Vale continued in a low voice.

Michelle tried to say something in reply, but her voice failed her and all she ended up doing was flop her mouth open and closed without making a sound.

Just as Vale opened his mouth to say what he wanted, something orange-colored bolted across the field towards them. Vale stood calmly as he waited for whatever it was to reach them. As it grew closer, Michelle could tell that it looked to be a fox, only it was a bit larger than one and plus, instead of having only one tail, it had six. When it was a few yards away from them, it stopped. Intelligent eyes looked the two of them over.

“Who are you?” it asked them.

“Travelers,” Vale answered.

“Then where do you come from?”

“Why would you want to know?”

The creature’s lip curled up and its eyes gleamed. “Insolent human,” it spoke, “Do you know nothing of what is going on?”

“What if I said that I didn’t?” Vale replied.

Something sounding like a laugh escaped from the creature. “Then do you not even know what I am?” When both Vale and Michelle shook their heads he continued, “I am a kitsune, a fox spirit. I have six tails so therefore I have lived for the past six thousand years. What has been going on is that lately, for whatever misguided or corrupt reason, the humans—of which you are one of them—have been hunting us.”

Vale’s own mouth curled up into a wry grin for a split second, and Michelle barely noticed it. She wondered why.

“Well even if we are humans, we have no part in what is happening between your people and the people hunting you. So it would seem to be in both our best interests that you would please let us be on our way without any fuss,” Vale beseeched.

The kitsune considered the two of them for a moment, tails whipping back and forth as though they each had a mind of their own as he thought. Michelle was speechless; the kitsune was just such a marvelous creature. There was nothing like that back in her home world. It made her wonder what else could possibly be in this world they had just fallen into.

“Alright then, but if I ever catching you harm any one of us, I will not hesitate to kill you.” It bared its sharp, pointy teeth for added effect. Then, satisfied for the moment, it bounded off at great speed into a nearby forest.

“Kitsunes, eh?” Vale muttered to himself.

Michelle waited anxiously to see what he would do next. She hoped nothing to do with her death.

“Have anything to say to that that might make yourself useful to me and so make me reconsider killing you?” Vale asked.

Michelle winced at the casual way he said it. “What do you mean?” she asked, narrowly avoiding using “um.”

“Do you ‘feel’ anything special about that kitsune or did anything he say seem to strike a chord with you?”

Considering this for a moment, Michelle replied, “I guess if I were to say that anything struck me in particular, it was the whole humans hunting the kitsunes thing.”

“I’ll be taking your word for it. We’ll see what happens. If you’re wrong, I’ll kill you. If you’re right, we travel together from now on until one of us reaches our goal, whatever it is.”

Michelle gulped. It seemed a lot was at stake over some “feeling” she had. It wasn’t even concrete at all. Vale gave her a bad feeling in her gut. Who was he?

“Now let’s go find the humans,” Vale said.

Together Vale and Michelle walked out of the field.

* * *

Michelle decided that the world they were in right now was nothing like her world or the previous world. The houses were completely different, kitsunes were here, and even though it lacked magical dust like the previous world, this world seemed to be magical in its own sort of way.

“This world is called Mujunku, in case you were wondering,” Vale suddenly said.

“Huh?” Michelle was taken by surprise. Vale’s words had come out of nowhere. “Mujunku? How do you know?”

“If you listen for something in the blank space between worlds, you can hear a sort of whisper say the name of the world that you are going to.”

“Oh.” There was a bit of silence before she asked, “Don’t you think that we stick out here?” The clothes in this world were a completely different style too. The few women she saw were wearing brightly colored robes that went all the way down to their ankles. The sleeves of the garment were wide and long. To top it all off, there was a belt sort of thing tied around their waist.

“We are travelers, remember? Every world has many different cultures, so it doesn’t matter if we stick out. They would never think of us being from another world.”

Another thought struck Michelle that had just occurred to her. “But what about how we can understand and speak their language? Won’t they think that is weird?”

Vale shrugged. “I guess they just assume that we’re educated and culturally aware.”

“Does that even make sense?”

“Look, just don’t question it, okay? All that matters is that we make it through here with ourselves and this world still intact.”

“Wait, what about the world?” Michelle asked, stopping in her tracks.

Before Vale could give her an answer, someone bumped into Michelle. She fell forward and Vale turned around to catch her before she could hit the ground.

“Kuso! I am so sorry!” whoever had bumped into her said.

Michelle was surprised when she turned around and saw someone wearing white robes with what looked to be a straw basket on his head. She blinked a few times, not able to believe what she was seeing. Who in their right mind would wear a basket on their head?

“Chikusho!” the basket head said, Michelle assumed he was swearing and that swear words weren’t part of the words that she just understood. “I already failed my mission, so there’s really no point in wearing this thing any longer.” The person pulled off the basket and Michelle saw, surprisingly, yet another person who looked to be just a few years older than her. He had short, black hair and green eyes. “Man, it sure feels great to finally have this off.”
Vale coughed while Michelle just stared at him blankly.

“What? Haven’t you ever seen a komuso before?” the strange person asked.

“‘Komuso?’” Michelle repeated.

“Oh, right, you’re foreigners, although you speak our language quite well,” the stranger started. “Anyways, a komuso is a type of traveling monk that wears a basket on their head. We can travel wherever we like without any hassle.”

“Really?” Michelle asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, you just don’t really seem like one,” Michelle stated.

“Where did you come from, anyways?” the supposed komuso asked, looking to change the subject. “You seem awfully opinionated for a woman.”

“‘For a woman?’” Michelle spat indignantly.

Just as the “komuso” opened his mouth to retort, Vale interrupted, “What is your name?”

The stranger closed his mouth before opening it again, “Ryokou, Matsushita Ryokou.”

“I’m Vale, and this is Michelle. We were wondering about what’s been going on between you and the kitsunes.”

“Huh? Oh, that? Ahhhhhh….” Ryokou dragged out. “Well, you see…”

Smoke suddenly blocked Michelle’s vision, and she started to cough. She heard Vale also coughing loudly. It took a few minutes for the smoke to finally clear away, and when it did, there was no trace of Ryokou. Michelle hadn’t even heard him flee.

“Hmmm…” Vale considered.

“Well what was that all about, I wonder,” Michelle spoke.

“We are going to follow him,” Vale said.

Michelle was lost. “Wait, what? How?”

“Just follow me, I should be able to find him.” Vale walked away down a street to the right, so Michelle followed him. She didn’t even think at all; it was just already a habit for her to follow him around even though he had talked about killing her.

She played the words over in her mind that sounded fun. ‘Komuso, kitsune, kuso, chikusho, Ryokou, Matsushita. Chikusho, chikusho, chikusho.’

“Were you just cussing at me?” Vale asked her.

Michelle was suddenly broken from her thoughts. “Huh? What?”

“You just said ‘chikusho,’” Vale pointed out.

Blushing, Michelle replied, “Well it just sounds like a fun word to say, and I guess it slipped out while I wasn’t paying attention.” Even though she couldn’t see it, she knew Vale was rolling her eyes at her, probably thinking something along the lines of ‘Why is it that I am still traveling around with a weirdo like her?’

They continued on in silence for a little while longer before Michelle broke it again, “So what are we going to do about the whole humans hunting the kitsune thing?”

“Well, obviously it’s bad and one of the two is going to end up killing the other. So we need to stop it before it escalates much further. First, though, we have to figure out why it all started in the first place, and I think I have an idea of what it is. But I need to know more specifically about it so we can convince the humans to stop and apologize properly to the kitsune.”

“Does this have something to do with the world being kept ‘intact?’” There was silence. “Huh?”

“Damn, why do you have to be so annoying?!” Vale snarled, making Michelle stop short, heart pounding. “I’m trying to track him down so stop asking questions!”

From then on Michelle didn’t say anything. She only treaded lightly and hesitantly with a safe amount of distance between her and Vale. How thin was the line between his barely tolerating her and him just killing her?

Vale stopped outside of a building before stooping down slightly, lifting up some sort of cloth-like panel. Michelle paused slightly before following after. Instantly the smell of cooked noodles, meat, and spices hit her and made her stomach grumble. All she had eaten in the last world was cold food like apples and cheese. She ached to eat a nice warm meal after so long. However, neither she nor Vale had any money from this world yet. The sound of boiling water was like a siren song for her stomach.

She eyed a steaming bowl filled with long, skinny noodles, egg, what looked to be chicken, and some chopped vegetables with who knows what spices topping it off. Her view was suddenly blocked by a hand. Following it up the arm it was attached to, Michelle gasped. There sat Matsushita Ryokou, slurping his warm noodles. The first thing that Michelle noticed, though, was that he was no longer wearing the white robes he had worn or, thankfully, the basket on his head. But did that mean that he wasn’t a komuso?

“Hey, Matsushita, awfully good at sneaking away, huh?” Vale said, sitting on a stool next to Ryokou’s.

Ryokou stiffened. Setting down two sticks he had used to scoop up the noodles, he finished slurping down the ones he already had in his mouth. With a cool look on his face he turned to face Vale and replied in an even voice, “What are you talking about?”

“You are not a komuso. You are not an ordinary person. You are not from this village,” Vale stated solidly. “So would you care to tell us what you are? We don’t have to do it here. In exchange I will tell you what we are. Then we both won’t tell anybody about what the other is. Is that a deal?”

“And why would I want to know about you?” Ryokou questioned, uninterested.

“What if I told you that we weren’t from anywhere you have ever have or ever will hear of?” Vale pressed.

“Again, why would I care?”

“Look, if you want I can even indulge a little about myself that even Michelle doesn’t even know about yet. Also, you may want to duck right now.”

“Huh?” Ryokou asked before hearing something whir through the air towards him. Instantly he ducked just as a knife of some sort passed right over his head. As Michelle watched, though it suddenly fell from the air. Out of the corner of her eyes, she thought she saw Vale’s eyes glow.

“Are you going to do something now?” Vale asked as though nothing had ever happened.

“Kuso! Kuso, kuso, kuso, kuso!” Ryokou said, falling off his stool to the ground quickly as another knife dug into the counter where his body had just previously been.

“I might help you out if you give me your word that you’ll meet me at the western edge of the village, near the pink blooming tree. If you don’t agree, I let this assassin finish you off. If you do agree, but never do come along, then I will seek you out and kill you. Do I make myself clear?” Vale offered.

Ryokou didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he pulled a knife out of the wood of the counter before throwing it with surprising accuracy at a figure which barely dodged it. He then rolled to the left, away from where Vale and Michelle were. When a third knife missed him by less than an inch, he shouted, “Fine! Whatever! Kuso! Just help me!”

“Finally, time to do my thing,” Vale muttered. He held out his hands, palms facing the ground. “Could you possibly use your smokescreen again?” he asked Ryokou. “Just near me.”

“What good will it do? There’s no way something as simple as that will work on him. You can tell by how good his aim is,” Ryokou protested, grabbing the third knife to deflect a fourth.

“It’s not for him,” Vale replied patiently. “Just do it. Now.”

Ryokou grunted before tossing something into the air. Smoke filled the building and once again Michelle was coughing along with everyone else in the vicinity. Once again Michelle heard the sound of something breaking through the ground near where Vale was standing. She wondered what it could be. Then there was the sound of someone screaming and collapsing to the ground.

A hand grabbed Michelle by the wrist, dragging her away. Sunlight blinded her as she broke out of the building, and she breathed in the fresh air with relief. She didn’t get a chance to rest, though, as Vale continued pulling her along.

“Wait, what about Ryokou?” Michelle asked as she was jostled along.

“He’s already ahead of us,” Vale replied, not slowing down at all. Something about him seemed slightly different, Michelle thought. He just seemed…livelier. But it was slowly fading and he was returning back to normal with each stride he took.

‘Weird…’ she thought to herself, almost having to run to keep up.

Soon they were where she assumed was the western edge of the village, and there was a beautiful tree with branches filled with small, delicate pink flowers that were prettier than any flowers than she had ever seen before. Here Vale finally released his hold on her, and she reflexively started to rub her wrist.

“I know I didn’t grip you that hard,” Vale smirked.

Michelle decided not to grace the remark with an answer and just glared at the ground.

“So, we still have a deal?” a voice came from above. It was Ryokou who now nimbly made his way down from one of the higher branches quickly without much disturbance before dropping to the ground.

“Of course,” Vale grinned.