Kazoru got up to his feet after being hit on the chin. He groaned as he touched his chin and apologized after being misunderstood by the situation.
From the young woman's appearance, she looked similar to him in age. She had black hair and some kind of tiara made of flowers. Her dress was white and torn, which was why Kazoru easily misunderstood her.
"Apologies there, I thought you were lost or in need of help." Kazoru staggered as he stood up and talked to her.
"Eh?" Kazoru's vision began to blur as he tried to keep his balance. It would seem that her kick was devastating; the impact was transferred to his brain, making him lose consciousness as seconds went by. Kazoru's legs began shaking, and he lost his ability to stand. Kazoru knelt, and he couldn't control himself anymore.
"Oh, sorry! I got freaked out and kicked you. "
"It's... fine..." Kazoru collapsed, and she tried to wake him up.
[After 2 hours]
Kazoru woke up in a house. It was covered in leaves, making it appear he was in a treehouse. Kazoru looked over the place and saw her squeezing the water from a towel and placing it on his chin. She apologized for what happened. She panicked after he had touched her hands, so she kicked the soul out of him.
Kazoru got up after lying down. He was in deep pain after being kicked so hard. It had been a long time since he was knocked unconscious during his training days. Kazoru praised her strength as remarkable and fearsome. Her kick almost brought him to the light recently. Kazoru then asked what her name was. She answered that her name was "Sayu Ayame Tingkaran". The Tingkaran made Kazoru feel familiar with the name. He felt like he had read that from his book of fairytales, "The Tribe of Tingkaran."
She answered no, her tribe, the Tingkaran, was real.
"Seriously? Where are they then? " Kazoru grew interested in her and asked where her tribes were.
"They've all passed away." She answered.
Kazoru was shocked and hurriedly apologized for his ignorance. He bowed as his forehead smacked into the wooden floor, causing it to splinter. He raised his head with blood on his head and apologized repeatedly. Sayu told him that it wasn't his fault and said not to worry because he wasn't involved in their deaths. Kazoru then inquired about who had done this horrible thing. She answered that it was an assault. They didn't do anything bad to them, but people like Kazoru did.
"People like me?"
"Yes, those people looked like you. They had similar modern clothes. But, you're kind, I can tell. They invaded our place, intending to find slaves. The assault was horrifying. Those horrible men were rapists, scum, and even worse. It was around 11 years ago. And I only have what my mother gave me: she wrote 3 books of stories. It was filled with her languages that I didn't know about. Usually, she would read them when I was sleeping." She gave Kazoru a look at the writing in the book that her mother wrote. Apparently, the writings were in her tribe's language. Even Kazoru did not know about this. Sayu had only learned a few of her tribe's languages, but she couldn't write them.
Kazoru felt bad that she was the only one of her kind and asked if she knew who they were. She said not to worry about them; she was protected by Tor, so she was safe. She was saved by Tor after being separated from her family. Her family vanished in the depths of flame. The only one she saw was her dead sister, who died being burned like charcoal. All of them vanished and were believed to have passed away, and it left her bereft.
"Hey, it's alright. I promised I would find your family and destroy those scums." Kazoru promised as he held her hand.
Her face was blushing red, and she kicked his chin again with her knee, accidentally.
And again, Kazoru collapsed, and this time it was even longer than before.
After being passed out, Kazoru woke up in the morning, and his chin had a blue mark on it, indicating his bruise. Kazoru's eyes were baggy, and he couldn't believe he had passed out at midnight. He had immense pain in his head, twice as bad as before. After he woke up, he realized she was sleeping next to him. She prepared him some food, but she was already asleep. Kazoru went to the table and ate the food before it got cold. She prepared rice, pork chops, and a soup with chicken, spinach, and carrots. Kazoru then ate them all wholeheartedly as he was hungry after recovering.
"Mm... Hmm?! Oh No!" Sayu woke up and started panicking.
"What?! What happened?"
"I-I... I slept with a man... and now I'm pregnant." She panicked because of an odd statement. She believed that when a female slept with a male next to her, the female would get pregnant.
"Hey! Calm down! It's just a myth! It's not biologically possible! " As she began crying and asking for Kazoru's responsibility, she stopped. Kazoru explained that it was just a myth. To point out, he knew how a child was made. He was taught by none other than Kitsune. It was vulgar, but it was educational, at least.
Changing the subject, he wanted to ask about the whereabouts of Tor. He needed him to train and teach him new things he hadn't learned. Sayu nodded and before he went to the mountains, she gave Kazoru an ointment for his chin and rubbed it around his chin. Kazoru complimented her finger as quite soft, it felt like a baby touching his chin.
After the ointment covered his whole chin, it started vaporizing. Kazoru felt pain but it was reduced rapidly.
Kazoru was amazed at how advanced the medicine was, but then again, why didn't she use healing magic. She said that she had none. She had no magic like Tor had. She stated that it was bothersome for her to be able to use magic since magic consumed mana, which was also similar to stamina. She didn't want to suffer a backlash, so she didn't go to an altar or shrine.
Sayu stand up and led Kazoru to Tor's place. But first...
Sayu told Kazoru to be cautious because Tor had set many traps on the pathway. These traps proved lethal and could easily kill people in an instant. This was because Tor disliked visitors. If they could get past these traps, then it would be worth it to meet, Tor said.
As Kazoru was cautious, Sayu went straight ahead, walking casually. Then, she triggered a wire trap. The trap appeared, and it was a giant log, hanging and about to hit Sayu. Kazoru ignited his flames to save her from the danger. However, she dodged the wooden log by moving a few steps backward, without a single frightened reaction. Kazoru believed that she had done that since she was able to dodge without any fear of her reactions.
Again, she walked. Kazoru walked slowly, whilst Sayu walked normally. Kazoru thought she had memorized all of the traps just by walking so carelessly.
Not even a minute passed, and she triggered another trap. This time, it was an arrow trap. The arrows appeared and surrounded her left and right. Sayu's reaction stayed the same, and she dodged the arrows while walking. The first arrow was shot, and she dodged it by leaning her head back. The second arrow was shot, and she just moved her feet a few inches away. Even with many arrows, she just gave off a small movement without sustaining injuries. Her movements were described as athletic as she dodged many of the arrows without a problem. About a hundred arrows were shot, and not one landed on her flesh.
Kazoru was asked to do what she did, but he failed on his first try. His right hand was almost a goner after he dodged the arrow without knowing when it would strike. He, unlike her, had no experience with reflexes and would frequently react slowly. But, Akira was able to do so without any problems. Still, Akira's reflexes weren't very special; he just trained them to be more effective against high-speed attacks. His keen instincts usage was only to increase his awareness, but as for his danger sense, it was proven that it did improve his reflexes.
Back to Kazoru, he didn't cheat, more like he was directed by Sayu. Kazoru was asked to dodge right, left, front, back, and he followed her direction. It did injure him and only a few scars were left on him.
[45 minutes later...]
They all encountered many traps and completed them all. Thankfully, Kazoru wasn't badly injured. And that included Sayu. She was amazingly unharmed. After he made his way through, he saw an old man with his hair moving in the wind. He was meditating and facing where the sun rose.
"How may I help you, Tingkaran girl?" Tor felt her presence without even looking behind him.
"I brought a visitor..." Sayu bowed and laughed nervously as she brought Kazoru.