A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

Michelle thought that they still had a long ways to go before they reached Ryokou’s ninja clan’s village since they were in the middle of a forest and all she saw were trees. The sun was already starting to set, and Michelle worried that Ryokou had either miscalculated how long it would take them to get there, or worse, that he had gotten lost yet again.

“Uh…” she was about to bring up her thoughts when a break in the trees revealed a small little village right in the middle of the forest. There was a medium-sized pond that ran around the biggest building and then out to a clear area in the village near the opposite edge. Some wooden rings were floating in it near the side that was away from the building. All of the buildings looked the same as the other village’s had been.

“Welcome to Murashisu,” Ryokou said as Michelle continued to examine it in awe.

She just couldn’t get over how unique the buildings looked to her. The architecture seemed so beautiful, and she wished she had some like it at home in her own world. In fact, she wondered if there was some country with a similar culture to this one’s that had buildings like this.

“Just follow me and I’ll introduce you to my clan’s head, Matsushita Tatsuya-sama,” Ryokou continued.

“He has the same last name as you?” Michelle asked in curiosity. “Does that mean you’re related?”

“Yeah, he’s my uncle,” Ryokou told her. “In fact, our clan’s named after my family name; it’s the Matsushita Clan although amongst ourselves, we like to refer to ourselves as the Tsubasakage Clan which means Shadow Wings in our language because we are so good at sneaking around at night in the dark for our missions.”

“Wow,” Michelle breathed appreciatively.

“Oh, and before you meet my uncle, just so you know, proper etiquette dictates that you bow to him when you introduce yourself to him,” Ryokou added before opening the door of the biggest building in the village of Murashisu.

Ryokou led them through a hallway to another door which he opened and led to a large room. There was a man sitting on the ground with a scroll covered in writing of some sort, Michelle would have to guess, spread out in front of him. The man looked up, and he had the same green eyes as Ryokou had. He had longer hair than Ryokou and a harder look to his face.

“Tatsuya-sama,” Ryokou said, bowing, “these are Vale and Michelle.”

Michelle and Vale both bowed as they were introduced, mimicking Ryokou.

“Ryokou, why did you bring outsiders here?” Tatsuya asked steadily.

“Tatsuya-sama, it is something of a long story, and I think that Vale would be the best to explain it.”

Vale bowed to Tatsuya again. “I am honored to be able to meet a man of your stature, and I assure you I would not have pressed Ryokou so hard about who he was and such if it were of the utmost of importance just as I assure you that Ryokou did not dishonor you in anyway in telling me what he was. He had no choice because of my persistence, so please, if you wish to blame someone, blame me.”

Tatsuya’s face was stony, even rivaling Vale’s general expression when it came to coldness. “Vale was your name, correct? What exactly is your business with my clan?”

“Tatsuya-sama, please hear me out. The humans must stop hunting the kitsune, otherwise this world might end. I want to help out, but people of this world, specifically this country, need to correct their actions themselves. I am sorry if I appear to be stepping out of line by saying these things, especially since I do not know the specific circumstances leading to your hunting of the kitsune, however I do know that a person has been able to convince you to do it for the greater good. That person was quite convincing, and now your world is heading for the destruction that was his goal.”

Tatsuya’s face remained impassive for a few long moments. Michelle bit her lip anxiously, waiting for him to make his decision. “I have no idea where you came from,” Tatsuya started, “or how you would know all this if you are obviously foreigners who have just arrived here in Kokutan, but you seem to know what you are talking about. So what I want to know is what do you want me to do? And what do you want my clan to do?”

“Thank you so very much, Tatsuya-sama,” Vale replied, bowing for a third time. “I would like it if your ninja clan could find the root of the kitsune hunt and then deal with negotiating with the kitsune. I would also like to know more about exactly how this started and why there is now animosity between the two sides.”

“I believe that I and my clan, the Matsushita Ninja Clan, can do those things for you,” Tatsuya said.

Michelle barely suppressed a sigh of relief. What would’ve happened if the great ninja clan leader had refused their request? However, she did feel left out in this world. She had hardly said anything lately. Maybe it was just the role that women played here, and it was affecting how much she was spoken to.

“Ryokou,” Tatsuya addressed the young ninja, “go and tell the others that aren’t away on missions that a meeting is to be held in a half an hour’s time followed by a welcoming banquet for our guests.”

“I understand, Tatsuya-sama,” Ryokou replied, bowing a final time before turning and leaving the room and then the building.

“Now then,” Tatsuya said, returning his attention to Vale, “here is what I know. Not too long ago the kitsune and humans lived together quite well. We would give them small offerings, and they would leave us alone, or even, sometimes, help us out. But then a mysterious man came along and told us that the kitsune were just taking advantage of us, that they were just monsters, and that we should stop giving them offerings and instead hunt them before they hunted us. So we ended up following his advice. I guess he was very good at convincing people of things.” Tatsuya shrugged. “And you are saying that our hunting of the kitsune will lead to the end of our world if it is not stopped soon?”

“Yes, I am afraid so,” Vale admitted.

Tatsuya sighed. “I am not so sure it will be as simple as just telling people to stop hunting the kitsune, and then the kitsune are definitely not happy about our attacks. This will be most troublesome, indeed.”

“I will try to help in negotiations as someone neutral,” Vale offered. “After all, I am not involved in this myself since I am from somewhere else. I will make sure this works out for everyone.”

“If you can bring the peace and good will back between our people and theirs, I would be eternally grateful to you,” Tatsuya accepted, he himself bowing this time. “Already one of my ninja was caught up in an attack and killed. The kitsune are quite powerful, and being on their bad side definitely bodes no good towards the people of Kokutan.”

“I am sure the dispute can be stopped peacefully. I will do everything in my power to make it so, and you need not give me anything in return,” Vale finished.

Ryokou entered the room. “Tatsuya-sama, I have told everyone about the meeting and the banquet as you asked me to do.”

“Thank you, Ryokou. Please take Michelle and Vale to the spare room for now and don’t forget to return for the meeting,” Tatsuya instructed Ryokou.

“I understand, Tatsuya-sama.” Ryokou then addressed Vale and Michelle. “Come on, follow me. In an hour or so, we’ll be eating, but for now I’ll take you where you can rest.”

Vale and Michelle followed Ryokou back out into the hallway again and then to a small room with a window giving them a view of the pond. To Michelle’s delight, there was another beautiful tree with its branches covered in pink blossoms right outside the window.

“What do you call that kind of tree anyways?” she asked Ryokou as they entered the room.

“Oh, it’s a sakura tree. They bloom like this in the spring,” Ryokou explained.

“They’re so pretty…” Michelle breathed, watching a breeze cause a few of the blossoms to float in the air into the pond.

“So you guys can stay in here until it’s time to eat and rest. I have no idea how long you’ve been walking about, so feel free to just take a nap, or whatever,” Ryokou told them.

“Thanks for bringing us here,” Michelle said, feeling that he deserved the thanks.

“No problem, I guess. After all, you did help save my life,” Ryokou replied, scratching the back of his head.

“You don’t really need to thank us,” Vale said matter-of-factly, sitting down on the mat on the ground. “After all, the only reason he tried to kill you was because we were following you around.”

“Wait, what?” Ryokou asked, emotions shifting from good-natured back to the angry at Vale.

“Well yeah, he knew about me and Michelle and knew to kill anyone we seemed to take great interest in. Also, if you tell anyone about the truth behind either me or Michelle, I’ll summon the dead again to kill you. You are not integral to saving this world, and never really were, although you did save us some trouble, and for that, I thank you again.”

“I don’t like you,” Ryokou said. “I don’t trust you and I don’t like how you can summon the dead. I don’t even know why Michelle would want to travel around with you in the first place. It seems to me you don’t even tell her everything that you should. It must be hard for her traveling with someone like you all alone and not anywhere near home which she might never see again. Why don’t you at least trying to be more nice to her before she just leaves you and you regret it.” With that being said, Ryokou left the room.

If this had any effect on Vale, he hid it well. He lay down, hands behind his head and eyes closed.

Michelle stared at him for a moment, Ryokou’s words really having an impact on her. They were all really valid points. Why was she traveling with him in the first place? He was the only other person she’d come across so far that was in the same general situation as she was, but he’d known so much more than her, important things, and was just now talking about them. How was she going to find her brother by traveling around with Vale? She couldn’t help but think all these things because of the words Ryokou had said.

She tried to get a little sleep, but she was too bothered by her thoughts to relax enough for any sleep to be possible. However, she was pretty sure Vale was sleeping soundly, although he didn’t snore or anything, for which she was grateful. She wondered what her brother was doing now and how her parents had reacted to finding both their children suddenly missing. Michelle knew she had to come back with her brother, and then this whole thing would be over. But why had it even started in the first place? She needed to know, and, she realized, if she traveled with Vale, she might find out. After all, he had said that someone was trying to bring an end to all of the worlds, so maybe that was somehow connected to her brother’s disappearance. She just hoped that Drake was okay.