A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

“You go first,” Ryokou demanded. “And then depending on how satisfied I am, I just might tell you about myself.”

“Okay, well then, me and Michelle are obviously not from this country. However, possibly and probably less obviously is the fact that we are both from a completely different world than this. I came from my own world, and she came from hers, and due to certain special circumstances, we are currently traveling together.”

“And do you really just expect me to believe that?” Ryokou asked skeptically.

Vale started grinning again, scaring Michelle. “If the fact that I have abnormal eye and hair color, both me and Michelle can perfectly speak your language, and the fact that Michelle has such a strong personality is not enough for you, I guess I’ll just have to do something extraordinary to convince you.”

Vale held his hands out in front of him, fingers outstretched and curved slightly down towards the ground. For a second, nothing happened, but then…

A shriek escaped from Michelle’s mouth before she clapped her hand over it. She stepped away from Vale while Ryokou stood frozen to the spot, eyes wide in fear.

“Stop it!” Ryokou shouted. “Make them go back! Make them go away! I swear I’ll tell you anything you want me to! Just return them to where they came from!”

Vale let out a laugh filled with pure joy. It startled Michelle. Vale was actually laughing, and happily too? Still smiling, he sighed, returning his arms to his side.

Eighteen skeletons finished pulling their way out of the ground before turning to face Vale, looking as though they were waiting expectantly for him to do or say something. Vale stretched out his hands again—this time palms facing the sky—and the skeletons bowed to him before sinking back into the ground again. As they disappeared, Vale’s demeanor visibly changed. He returned to having a cold and unsociable exterior as the last top of a skull returned to wherever the skeletons had come from.

No one spoke for a few moments, and in the silence Michelle’s mind was abuzz with chaotic thoughts after having seen what Vale could do. So was that how he had scared the rich person back in the other world along with the person who had been following them, and then, in this world, how he had killed the assassin?

“Kuso! Are you crazy?! Why did you just raise the dead?” Ryokou finally spoke, striding towards where Vale was.

“Did anyone see anything?” Michelle asked quietly, worried.

Ignoring her, Ryokou grabbed Vale’s shirt, eyes glaring angrily at the silver-haired guy who had just summoned eighteen skeletons who had bowed to him before disappearing.

‘Is he a ruler over the dead, or something?’ Michelle thought, watching to see what would happen.

“Was that why you needed smokescreen as a cover? You summoned these to kill that assassin? What are you?” Ryokou questioned angrily.

“I am the one who should be asking you that,” Vale pointed out calmly, undeterred by Ryokou’s anger.

Taking a deep breath, Ryokou slowly relaxed his grip on Vale’s shirt before stepping back. “So you swear you’re not from this world?” he asked, sounding as though he wished the answer was no.

“I swear,” Vale replied, crossing his arms in wait for Ryokou’s response. “And don’t even think about trying to get away. I’ll kill you if I have to.”

If Ryokou was disturbed by that last comment, he hid it pretty well. “Fine, then if you must know, I am a ninja. And of course you don’t know what that means. Long story short, ninja are the people you go to when you want something done in the dark since the samurai are so honorable. I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but I guess I have no choice and plus you are from another world.”

“Exactly,” Vale said simply. “Thank you.”

“So why do you need to know that, and why are you even here in the first place?” Ryokou asked.

“The dispute between you and the kitsunes worries the both of us,” Vale explained.

“First of all, it’s just kitsune, not kitsunes. Secondly, why would something like that concern outsiders like you?”

“There is a person who is trying to destroy all of the worlds right now, and he’s sending out the minions he’s recruited to help his plot along. The conflict between you and the kitsune struck a chord with Michelle whom I am entrusting to detect either the important person or event of a world. Naturally, if there was no outside influence, the world would be just fine and the person or event would do what was needed to maintain the world’s stability. However, his minions are attacking the persons or influencing events in order to cause the worlds to collapse on themselves on way or another. So I believe, if Michelle truly can be trusted, that you humans should stop hunting the kitsune. Either you will cause the kitsune to become extinct or the kitsune will destroy your country and that will lead to the collapse of Mujunku, your world.”

This was more information that Michelle hadn’t known yet. It was amazing how much Vale was just dispensing so freely right now, now that he was talking with Ryokou. She wondered why he would decide to talk so much now, of all times.

“All of that? All of that is why? How did you even get stuck in the middle of all of that, anyways?” Ryokou asked in disbelief.

“It’s not important right now. I don’t really feel like launching into the whole back story just yet, so I have a request to make of you,” Vale answered. “There are other ninja like you, right? Do you belong to a specific group of them by any chance?”

Ryokou grimaced at the question. He took a few moments to consider. “So our world will end if I don’t help you most probably?”

“Pretty much.”

“Fine, I guess I can take you to my clan,” Ryokou conceded. “Just follow me.”

“What were you doing here, anyways?” Michelle asked, finally saying something.

Ryokou blushed slightly. “Uh, well I have never had a good sense of direction, and even though I told Tatsuya-sama that there was no one I was going to be able to find my way to where I was supposed to go, he insisted that I go out on the mission.”

“So basically what you’re saying is you got lost?” Michelle couldn’t help but tease.

“Shut it before I stab you with a knife,” Ryokou threatened darkly, an angry look on his face.

“Why are you already threatening to kill me?” Michelle asked, crestfallen. How was she expected to survive when she was traveling with two people who both wanted to kill her?

Ryokou’s face relaxed a little, “I wasn’t actually serious, you know?”

“Thank you so much,” Michelle replied fervently.

“Yeah…” Ryokou trailed off awkwardly. “Well my clan’s village is close to this one, so if we walk with only one break to it, we can make it there by nightfall.”

Michelle sighed. Yet more journeying she would have to do, though she supposed she would have to get used to it if she was to travel between worlds. Especially if she wanted to find her brother. Who knew how long it would take before she figured out where he was. And then there was always the fact that after finding out where he was she would have to get there and then the two of them would have to find a way back home together.