Shu had just woken up, he seemed tired and dizzy, his eyes were uneven and his mouth was slightly open
"What happened?"
He whispered to himself while sitting up slowly holding his head with his right hand as he then yawned. His hair was messy and he seemed to have a slight headache
"My head hurts"
She said to himself before being interrupted by a feminine voice
"That's cause you ate quite a lot last night, and when I say quite, I mean an entire table of food, haha"
Said what seemed to be a small girl. She was 147cm in terms of height, a little skinny, and smooth-skinned. She was wearing a pink dress, that surrounded her neck and left her back open, the dress was then broken into two strands that slid down her chest and covered her small breast, then down at the end of the stomach the two strands seemed to connect covering her thighs and half of her legs
"Hey, what the hell, a miniature human. Haha, I've never seen one!"
Said Shu with a smile on his face as he got up from the bed he was sleeping in, not caring how and when he got there, this little girl was interesting to him and he wanted to see if she was any fun
"Miniature human?"
The girl questioned while looking up at Shu, tilting her head a bit as Shu laughed placing his hands over her shoulders
"Hey, do you have a name!"
Shu questioned while the girl nodded causing him to smile as she simply blinked
"Well, my name's Valentine"
The girl responded with simplicity causing Shu to grin as he then proceeds to let go of her shoulders, placing his right thumb and index finger right below his chin, taking a thinking position
"Grandpa said miniature humans aren't that old, so you must be around 9 yes?"
Said Shu while nodding as if he was agreeing with himself
"Miniature humans? You must be talking about children. Well I'm not a chil, I'm an adult, I'm 503 years old"
Said valentine while placing her hands behind her back, right above her waist as she played with her fingers, looking up at the boy with a calm expression.
Shu was about to say something, but the door was roughly opened abruptly interrupting him, as he turned his head towards the door.
Ayami had walked into the room, looking at Shu then at Valentine
"Oh..miss valentine I didn't expect you to visit him so early"
Said Ayami while walking over to Valentine, as Valentine stretched her hand out as Ayami held it
"I'm your guardian Miss Valentine you shouldn't run off like that, what if something happened while I was gone?"
Added Ayami while looking at Shu up and down
"You better change, into something decent, we're going out for training, I'm assuming you're strong considering you fell from that mountain and didn't die"
Ayami said pointing out his feat as well as his half-naked body.
"Oh right, my clothes"
Shu replied while looking down at his body, his abdomen was naked and so were his legs, only his private parts were covered.
"Well, we'll be waiting outside, hurry up and get changed. Come on Miss Valentine"
Ayami said while walking out of the room with Valentine right behind her.
Shu simply sighed, he hasn't talked to so many people in his entire life, only his grandfather and his adoptive brother Fu, so all of this was kind of new to him, even so, he felt happy about it all
"I should probably get ready instead of reminiscing about how many friends I've gotten so far"
He said to himself while beginning to put his clothes on, walking out of the room five minutes later.
"Ugh, what took you so long"
Said Ayami while walking over to Shu, who simply scratched the back of his head nervously laughing as she approached him
"Well, you see-"
Shu was interrupted by Ayami who began to touch his hair pushing it back a bit, making it look a bit less messy
"If you were gonna take so long so should've at least done your hair. Anyway, come on, let's get you a weapon, and let's begin with training"
Ayami ordered while taking a few steps back, looking at Shu up and down for a few seconds, nodding to herself as she sighed
"On second thought let's get you some new clothes, you look stupid with that Kimono on"
Said Ayami, insulting Shu's outfit, making him sigh as he simply nodded. They would then proceed to walk out of the inn heading to the closest clothes store, or rather the only clothes store
"Alright, just wait here and let me pick out the clothes for you"
Ordered Ayami, as the three of them walked into the store. All Valentine and Shu did was sit down as Ayami looked for something she thought would fit the boy
"So Valentine, why is Ayami so formal towards you?"
Said Shu, trying to start a conversation with the small yet cute looking woman
"Well, I'm considered the second most important person in the village, right behind the Village chief"
Valentine explained while looking up at Shu, who smiled
"Oh!, it must be because you're super strong right?"
Shu questioned, now really intrigued in the little woman
"Well, not really, all I do is cloak the village, I have the ability to create squares in existence that can erase anything from reality. Meaning, whenever I surround something with a square, to people it will just look like it isn't there anymore, they won't be able to hear, see or sense what's happening inside of the square, but it can be easily broken if attacked. So Ayami is protecting me to in turn keep the village safe, pretty cool, huh?"
Valentine explained while smiling up at Shu
"Oh, that's awesome!!, but then, what happens if you die?"
Shu questioned with an innocent look on his face as he looked down at Valentine, who just began to laugh
"Well if that happens the square will just disappear, but that's what Ayami's here for, she keeps from dying, until well, I grow old and-"
Valentine was interrupted by a loud voice, and of course, it was Ayami's voice
"I finally found something that would look good on him!"
She yelled while walking over to the two, holding what seemed to be clothes for men
"It took a while since it was hard to find any clothes that fit your slim physic, but here it is"
She yelled once more while being watched by Valentine and Shu
"Well, what are you waiting for? Put them on"
She said while throwing the clothes at Shu's face. Shu would then head to a guest room with the clothes Ayami had found in his hands while Ayami took his seat and sat beside Valentine
"So what were you and Shu talking about Miss Valentine?"
Ayami questioned while looking down at Valentine with a small smile
"Nothing interesting really, he was just asking why you were so formal towards me"
Valentine replied while looking at the door that Shu had just entered
"Really?"
Ayami questioned, imagining a small version of Shu asking that type of question
"Yep"
Replied Valentine with simplicity, while Shu would walk out of the room with his new clothes on, looking down at his shoes
"I don't know about this outfit Ayami, I prefer something looser, this is too tight on my body"
Said Shu, while turning sideways a bit. He was wearing, a black long-sleeved shirt, as well as black long pants with a pair of black boots
"What do you mean some looser? that looks perfect on you, let me just pay for it, and let's get out of here"
said Ayami while grabbing Shu's hand, dragging him towards the counter, giving the man running the place a silver coin as Valentine followed right behind them.
After a bit of walking, they finally reached their destination, which was the training grounds. All that could be seen was a vast field with a great number of people, sparring with each other in pairs of two
"Woah!!, so many people! when can I get to fight!?"
Shu yelled while running towards the field, running in between fights, interrupting the people's fighting as he kept running around the place
"Hey, Shu!!, don't just run off like that, dammit!!, Miss Valentine, please forgive me"
Said Ayami while running after Shu, catching him after a few minutes, dragging him to the front of the field being watched by everyone in the place, as Valentine simply laughed from afar
"Alright everyone, we have a new warrior who will be Joining our training field, Welcome, Himura Shu!!"
Ayami yelled while pulling Shu up by his hair, as everyone looked at him with confusion.