A shining light. Brigther than anything else, yet not hurting the eyes. Only for it to disappear. Into a dark empty void. It felt cold. As there was nothing but thoughts. He was alone. He felt isolated from all matter. He didn't feel the need to speak, even though He wasn't even sure if he could in the first place. He reached out his hand, but couldn't see said hand. But he was sertant it moved. However it failed to reach anything.
But then, he felt something. A sense of direction. A warmth surounding him, yet failing to reach him. As his senses returned, he realised he laid flat on the ground. He also realized that his eyes were closed. When he opened them, he saw Yuki. She looked down at him with big eyes, as he started to realize that his head laid in her lap. He didn't really mind that, though, as it seemed that she didn't either. Once she realized his awareness, she got nervous and blushed in embarressment.
"Uhm.. h-hello, Young Master."
"...why are we like this?"
She looked away, even more embarressed, when he demanded an explanation for their position.
"Y-you see... We were pulled into that portal.. and then appeared in the air... s-so I tried flying up after catching you, so we wouldn't fall down. But my wings didn't work and I also failed to do anything else. All I could do was cover your unconcious body with my wings and soften the impact when we crashed into the ground. We were unusually fast though, which then resulted in us hitting the ground like an asteroid!"
"Aha... Thank you, I guess.. say.. could it be that we hit a small village when we landed?"
She looked around with a guilty expression. Seeing burned ruins of a village next to them. While they sat in the middle of an impact crater.
"I-I tried to dodge them.. but it was no use.. a-and my highest priority was your saftey! So I couldn't maneuver out of the way! You have to believe–..."
"–don't worry about it."
He cut her off. She looked suprised by his nonchalance. After all, they just destroyed a village, with maybe just about a hundred citizens.
"...Y-you don't mind?"
"It's not a problem."
Somehow, that made her feel less guilty. Actually, after knowing that she didn't do anything wrong, she didn't really care for the village anymore.
"A-alright then~..."
So he got up from her lap and looked around. Seeming to really not mind the destruction around them at all.
"Anyway, this must be what that old man talked about."
"Old man...Y-you mean god? Yes.. it appears so... While we dopped I didn't see any signs of near by civilization. So we are surrounded by forest."
He looked around. Then at the sky. Then back at her.
"That's good information. Good work. The old man said it would more interesting here.. looking at the village, it wouldn't appear to be very advanced technologicly.. however I don't think he just sent us back into the past.."
She was a little distracted since he complimented her effort. But she felt like she should tell him something.
"Hm? Oh, this is another world for sure, Master. I can tell by the magic circulation"
"...The magic circulation?"
"Yes! Oh, I forgot, in your original world, there wasn't anything like magic. But you see, I can tell that this isn't earth, by sensing the existence of magic in the air. Well, it's not magic I sense but more mana."
He just stared at here for a moment.
"Magic and mana.. like a video game?"
"Well... Yes..."
She didn't like the comparison. Magic was more than just a simplified feature in a game. But she acknowledged it also as a justified comparison in a way. So she just agreed.
"Aha. That's one way to make a world diverse and interesting, I guess. Since you can sense it, can you also use that magic stuff then?"
"Well, normally I should.. but I don't have any way to do so at the moment. I'm sorry, but I don't know why that is..."
"Ah.. that stupid old man. I bet that's his fault. But I guess it would've been boring to start a game with an over powered angel guardian."
"You think it's gods doing that I can't use my powers? Maybe that is also why I couldn't fly earlier..."
"It's just a guess. I don't have any prove for that. But I also don't have other theories at the moment."
"The young master dosn't need proof to convince me! It was him, no doubt about it!"
Her blind faith in his word slightly suprised him, but only for a moment. He chose to not say anything about it for now. He instead walked towards a destroyed house and build a small stone monument out of the rubble there.
"What are you doing, Young Master... Is that.. a little stone tower?"
"Ah.. don't worry about it. It might get important later tho. So remember I did this and where."
She looked confused but decided on not to question him. Instead she wondered about something else.
"But what now, Young Master? We can't stay in these ruins for long. I may be an angel but I still need food and water if I am not in heaven or a similar place under devine authority."
"You do? I see... Well then we'll have to go into the woods for now. I originally planned on waiting until some traders come by the villiage. Usually small villages like that have a depends on goods from the outside, to survive the winter and stuff.. but I guess we can't wait for that long. We also don't know the time and current season.. one more reason to seek food and water supply"
And so they went out of the villiages ruins and to a small road that lead through the woods.
"What exactly are we looking for, Master?"
"For the sound of a river. Naturally, it'll be a water supply. But also animals will be near by, maybe fish aswell."
"Ah.. I see. If I could fly I would be more of help... Sorry..."
"It's alright. Losing an extra advantage leaves you still with a regular situation. Like, you being able to fly is a plus. But you can't use it right now. That's a minus. Which adds up to zero. Aslong as it's not in the negatives, there's no reason to be mad about it."
"That's an interesting perspective, Young Master.."
While continueing to walk down the road, she thought about his words. So he meant that losing a bonus is just like having no bonus, which is the norm then.. and there's no reason to be mad about being in a situation with normal circumstances. Though, their situation wasn't normal at all, they hadn't lost anything. It was an helpful mindset, she supposed.
Lost in thoughts, she suddenly heard a sound. It came from the trees above them. Like something moved. But when they looked, nothing was there.
"Someone is there, Master."
"I know.. you sensed mana right?"
"...H-how did you know?!"
"Just guessed."
She felt like that was a lie. But they didn't have time to talk about that. As the point of origin of the sound was directly above them, this was quite dangerous for them.
Before either of them could react, they both felt a cold, sharp edge of steal on their necks. A harsh male voice sudden spoke from behind of Yamato and Yuki.
"Who are you two and what happened to the villiage near by?! We know you know something. You are the only people near by and you aren't from the villiage."
Despite having a sharp object at his neck, Yamato remained expressionless. He spoke in a polite and friendly tone.
"We don't wish you harm. As you see, we are unarmed, so why don't you put those weapons away?"
Another voice responded from behind Yamato and Yuki, this time a female one.
"We decide on the necessity of weapons. If you answer our questions we will concider putting them away."
Yamato remained calm despite their unwillingness to de-escalate the situation. His voice remained friendly and polite.
"We don't know what happened at that villiage. We are just travellers that wanted to rest their as we have no food or water at the moment, and are unfamiliar with the region. When we arrived at the ruins, it was already too late. So we created a small honor for the dead and prayed for their souls at a stone monument. We passed by the ruins and decided to look for survivors in the woods. You can convince yourself of our story by going back to the ruins and looking for the small stone monument we build for our prayer."
That caused silence behind them. It seemed like they were whispering to themselfs to decide what to do now. Yuki stayed silent, as she finally understood why Yamato randomly built that stone tower earlier. "This story just now was way to perfect.. He must've planned it in advance. That must also be why he build that tower. To back up his story. After all, in ruins, something like that wouldn't be there naturally, so it must've been made by someone. Also, no one builds that without a reason. It just wouldn't make sense. Someone who would be the cause of such an desaster, would normally not build that either. It's also small enough for by passers to over look it. So it's most likely for the person to have built it, to be the only one who knows about it. Since we knew about it, that made his stroy convincing. Even if we didn't pray at it, there's no way in disproving it. It was near flawless.." she thought.
But it all came down to their reaction. If they believed them or not was determined by whether if they also understood the logic behind those actions. Only when they understood that it wouldn't make sense for a tower to be there if they did cause the destruction, they'd actually fall for the trick. It's a trap, that can only be avoided by being extremely paranoid, or by lacking the intelligence to see the meaning behind that actions. Someone who didn't understand at all, would be immune to such a trap. Just like someone who understood too well would be. In the end, it was a gamble. He couldn't posibly know before hand if that trap would even be needed. Or who it would be directed towards. But maybe he also planned for other events. Yuki was clueless about her masters plans. But she knew she had to play along to not contradict his statements.
After a few minutes of silence the female voice responded again.
"It appears we have no reason to doubt you... We will check your story, though. My partner will go look for said monument. We'll wait here and once he returns we will determine what to do next."
They see a hooded siluet pass by them with incredible speed. That person must've been the male voice from earlier, as the female one was staying with them. The person went towards the direction of the ruins of the village, and returned in less than a minute. Giving a nod to the female voice, which results in her putting the sharp object finally away from Yamato's and Yuki's neck. The female voice called out to them once again.
"We apologise for our suspicion. You really know nothing about what happened?"
Yamato responded, still remaining polite and friendly.
"No, we just happened to pass by at a unlucky timing, I suppose."
Yuki, who has remained silent throughout this whole time, was actually furious right now. Despite wearing a smile, she was overflowing with murderous intend. "How dare they threaten my young master with their little knifes", she thought. If she would have full access to her strength, she probably would've killed them the moment she noticed them coming. But she remained calm. Not showing any of that on the outside. But Yamato probably noticed it. So he tried to lighten the mood a bit, even though he had no intend in becoming friends with them, he wanted information from them.
"Well, why don't we introduce ourselfs first so we get to know who everyone is? I'm Tasumaki Yamato and my companion is Hikari Yuki."
The male person still didn't seem as cooperative as the female one, but went along with the situation.
"..nice to meet you two, I guess. I'm Ken Kenzo. "
"Again, our apologese for the misunderstanding. I am Satomi Hana. For causing you such trouble, why don't you come with us and we take care of refilling your supplies?"
Kenzo didn't seem to like her invatation to Yamato and Yuki. He tried protesting but was silenced by Satomi. It was now that Yamato got too see beneth their hoods first, revealing ears that were long and pointy at the end. However, he didn't comment that and saved it for later. Having no reason to deny the offer that they actually needed quite a lot, Yamato accepted.
"That's so nice of you. Thank you very much. Yuki and I accept your generous offer, of course."
And with that, Satomi lead the way. Kenzo, Yamato and Yuki following her. It seemed Kenzo walked closer to Yamato and Yuki to observe them better, as he wasn't as trusting as Satomi was. However it didn't appear to cause any problems.. for now.