When Ava woke up in the middle of the forest, her first thought was 'What the fuck'. Her first words, as well, were also "What the fuck?!"
When she finished cursing out her situation and headache and that awful buzzing sensation beneath her skin, she turned her attention to the rucksack lying innocently beside her.
She felt the urge to kick it.
The part of her run by logic told her that it was irrational to blame everything on an inanimate object. The part of her run by emotion told the part run by logic to shut the fuck up and her to kick it anyway.
Ava compromised by kicking a nearby tree. There might've been something important and easily broken in the rucksack after all. The buzzing sensation had lessened when she got up, but now it intensified in her foot when it made contact with the wood. She stared at it.
She placed her hand on the tree and the buzzing sensation ran up her arm. She took her hand off.
"What the fuck," she said.
It never crossed her mind that this situation may have been a prank. None of Ava's friends were the type to do this sort of thing. In fact, out of all the people she knew, she was the most likely one to organise something like this. She couldn't have, obviously, because she was the victim.
Ava picked up the rucksack and noted that it barely increased the buzzing in her body. She rummaged through it.
A week's worth of rations was set on the grass beside her, followed by two full canteens of what she hoped was clean water. A fire-starting kit, a box of unknown pills, a change of clothing, a pot containing all she would need to do some basic cooking was also pulled out of the bag.
In one of the outer pockets, Ava found a drawstring purse full of money. Well, at least it looked like money, though she'd never seen any currency like it before. The coins were golden with square holes, and the notes were paper with Chinese characters and a weirdly familiar symbol on either side of a blank white circle. On the other side were more Chinese characters and a picture of a man dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. Oh, so the writing was kanji, not Chinese. Got it.
Ava turned the note in her hands around again and frowned at the the symbol. She swore she'd seen it before. She squinted at the swirl with a triangle attached to it. Her eyes widened when the realisation hit.
What the fuck was she doing with a bag full of money from a fictional world?!
Ava slapped a tree branch out of her way and dodged the rebound with a curse. There were only two possible explanations for her current situation.
One, someone had set up an elaborate prank to make her think that she'd been transported to the fictional world of Naruto. This was unlikely because of the presence of what she assumed was chakra running through her body.
Two, she had actually been transported to the fictional world of Naruto. This was also unlikely because stuff like this just didn't happen.
She wasn't even a Naruto fan! The most contact she'd had with the series was fanfiction which had been written too well for her to pass up and fantheories on tumblr. She knew the plot, of course, like any self-respecting weeb, but her knowledge of the characters was probably skewed because she'd gotten to know them solely through fanfiction.
Ava sighed and took a sip from a canteen. She'd been walking for what felt like hours now, though it had probably only been half an hour since she'd set out. The buzzing of chakra had lessened to the point that she was able to pretend it didn't exist, though contact with living organisms immediately brought it back to her mind again.
She shaded her eyes and looked up at the sky. She rolled her eyes and took another sip of water.
"Who am I kidding, like hell I know how to tell the time from the position of the sun," she grumbled, kicking a rock out of her way.
She worried about what she'd do if - when, she told herself, when, not if - she came across people. She couldn't read the words on the banknote so she wouldn't be able to understand what people were saying as well. Her limited knowledge of Chinese writing would help her somewhat - if she managed to get her hands on something to write with, that is - and her years of watching anime would at least let her apologise to people, but other than that, she was pretty much screwed.
Oh well. She hadn't happened upon anybody yet, so she'd cross that bridge when she got to it.
Her first encounter with people literally happened on a bridge.
When she had discovered the river by way of almost falling into it, she had followed it and it had finally paid off.
Ava stood by the side of the road for a moment, watching an old man driving a mule-drawn cart cross the bridge. After a moment of contemplating the dangers, she called out to him. He was old, after all, and she'd been taking self-defense classes since she was a child, and had even gotten a part-time job as an assistant recently.
"Sumimasen!" she called. When he showed no signs of having heard her, she increased her volume. "Sumimasen!"
The man heard her this time and stopped the cart. He turned to her curiously and gruffly said something.
"Wakarimasen," she said.
He said something else.
"Wakarimasen," she repeated. "Chotto tasukete kudasai."
The man said something again and Ava stared blankly at him. At last he sighed and gestured for her to get on. Ava smiled in relief and bowed.
"Arigato gozaimasu."
She clambered onto the seat next to him. When she was safely seated, the old man flicked his reins and the cart started moving.
"Watashi no namae wa Liu Ava," she said. She'd wanted to use boku or ore, but decided watashi was the safest option. "Onamae wa?"
"Akiyama Kentarou."
"Akiyama-san, yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
The old man grunted in response.
i'm not going anywhere with this. suggestions are appreciated.
i should be working on avoiding the mafia.
please leave a review on your way out