A/N.: Hello dears readers! It's been a while and I'm pretty sure that now, my message of re-rewriting the "CrossWorld" fanfic had been passed through correctly, thus I will start to replace the chapters all at once again. Once again, I sincerely apologize to the previous readers about the consequences of my undecisiveness, I hope that you wouldn't resent me for this. And once again, I thanks the people who had the great kindness to understand my reasons...
"―Go on a journey." One day, all of the sudden, those words were told to her.
The girl just stared at the woman in front of her with a confused expression which soon turned into a frown as she questioned the older woman, "...Sorry, I don't... understand. I'll try to listen more carefully so please repeat one more... time." If you were told that all of the sudden one day, would you react differently than this?
Suddenly the woman's eyes that were closed (the child didn't even knew when she closed them) snapped open in a dramatic manner as she took out a certain book from her back (how did she even hide it there?) at a lightening speed before snapping it open in a fluid motion as the pages turned around of its own as if they were being blown by an imaginary wind before finally reaching the chosen page before shoving the book in front of the girl's face... or actually the woman moved too fast and literally crashed the book into the girl's face before stepping away, giving her a little more space.
The girl then teared off the book from her face before blinking twice at it, the nature of the book that this person was so serious about was, it was...! ...It was the popular 'Weekly Shōnen Jump' full of recents manga updates of this week...? What the heck? What with that? Understanding less and less, the girl directed a complex expression which was the mixture of many emotions onto her face towards the older woman. 'What on earth is this about?' She didn't needed to voice it out, apparently everything was showing onto her face and that was enough to get her interlocutor to understand.
"Say, what do you see it is?" The woman asked.
The girl blinked dumbly again and tilted her head on the side in confusion, the action could have been called as 'cute' if it weren't for the expressionless face the girl was putting, "Observation; this is a picture book." She answered like a programmed machine or a robot along with an emotionless voice.
"A 'manga', to be more precise!"
"Question; what is the difference?"
"Of course they aren't! How dare you compare the two of them to begin with it?!"
"Understood, they're differents. So, the reason behind such an action... is...?" The girl's tone was monotone and nonchalant, even though she apologized it was obvious that she didn't meant it, rather she didn't even understood the reason behind the woman's sudden anger over her small mistake.
"Look at that." The girl then did as the woman said and looked at the corner of the page in particular she pointed out to her; the scene of a comic character only seen from the back and a bag hanging on his shoulder facing a setting sun...
"...Still... uncomprehensible."
The woman then slammed her palm against the table, making the teacups on it jumping at the impact and some drops of the liquid in it dance in the air before falling back into their cups. However she soon regretted the action as she rubbed her hand painfully. The girl could only watch the scene with a sweatdrop over how ridiculous it was, after a while later the woman spoke: "What I'm saying is that this character would be the center of your new startover! Take example of him and go on a trip to find yourself~!" So she proudly declared as she pointed her index finger at the girl during that declaration filled with a strong-willed voice, but...
"..."
"..."
"..." The wind (an imaginary one since all the windows were closed) blown through them while the silence lasted and the scene turned gray... before the girl's mind finally clicked it and showed an incredulous gaze to the older woman, and after a while―
"...This is where you are supposed to say something." The woman frowned as she slightly sulked upon seeing the fact she didn't get any reactions in return.
The girl only raised an eyebrow at her complain, "Apologies; I'm just confused over the situation."
"But~ I've just wanted to relax the atmosphere a bit before announcing the news~" The woman snucked her tongue out childlishly and shrugged her shoulders, it was as if the roles of children and adults were inversed between the two of them. A childish adult and a mature kid... it would probably make a good topic for a TV drama. "Besides, weren't you looking at our previous visitors who went on a travel enviously?"
"Deny; I didn't though?" The girl answered her without missing a beat as she deadpanned.
"Eh~? No matter how I saw it you did~"
"Repeatition; I didn't."
Suddenly the woman's funny expression dropped before it became more serious, "Seriously... you really need it, trust me."
"Question; is that so...?"
"You are rather unstable these last few times, it's better for you to change of pace and take a whole breath of fresh air."
"..."
"If you are getting yourself stuck on the same place over and again, you will never be able to move forward."
"...Sincere apologies for causing you unnecessary worries." This time the girl seemed to mean her apology more truthfully, though the woman made no mention of worrying about her neither it was showing on her face, it seems that the two were acquainted well enough to be able to see that inside each other.
"And stop apologize when you're not at fault! Otherwise, are you going on this trip or not? I recommend you to do it though, it is not everytime that I allow a free service like that so take that chance when it is still offered!"
"...Comprehension; it seems that in neither case I have any choice―FWEH~?!" The girl's cheek was suddenly pulled, the culprit being the woman who nodded to herself in a interested manner, "Hm~? I see, so this is the feeling of stretching a mochi, isn't it?" And with that she let go girl's cheek that bounced back at her like some kind of elastic while the girl only rubbed her bruised and rosy cheek.
"Anyway, go change yourself into more comfortable clothes to move in and hurry up and go! Shoo, shoo!" The woman waved her hands while the girl frowned further, "Am I a dog?" She muttered but obeyed and did as she was told to. As she saw the girl's more and more distant back figure, the woman's smile turned into a more solemn and sadder one.
'All I hope is that it would give her a positive effect, though...' But unfortunately, fate isn't so kind to endulge every of our whims... Besides if that girl were to discover what she was preparing for her, she would never forgive her.
"...Fumu." The girl opened her eyes as her consciousness returns and see that she's sitting in the middle of some ruins. No matter how you looked at it, it's was all in ruins. To top it off, it's on the scale of a village and seemed quite faraway from the town. There are buildings in decay as far as the eye can see, and there wasn't even a single trace of a person living around here.
Her hands that were placed on the ground managed to trail until it touch a piece of broken glass, the girl noticed it and then took it in her hand, seeing her own reflection on it thanks to the faint rays of sunlight passing through the holes of the roof. What she saw was her long flowing flaxen hair that was hanging down her back, acting like a magnificient veil wrapping her petite body. She had eyes of two different colors, one was of an icy blue while the other was crimson red, there were many ways to call this like 'odd eyes' or 'heterochromia'. It was the type of cute girl you would like to dress up like a doll.
However to the girl herself none of this mattered, instead she tugged at one of the strand of her hair before sighing in an inaudible manner. 'I should have borrowed something to tie my hair up with.' After all if she was traveling she needed to be the most comfortable possible, her hair might get in her way if it's left like that and chopping it off was as much as an hassle to deal with. Then she immediately dropped the glass in an unhesitant motion, the glass broke in a cracking sound, exploding into many small shards. Normally people would avoid it, seeing it as dangerous or being afraid to get hurt with it but the girl just yawned in response just like it was not even something worthy to be bothered with.
'Though this is certainly not how I envisioned things to be...' The girl wondered absentmindedly to her guardian who send her here. Sure, the weather is calm, the temperature is warm, and there's a nice breeze. The air also tastes good and fresh, to be clear it's the perfect environment for a good afternoon nap! ...But seriously dropping her off into these ruins. But well, the location kinda fits her wishes, so let's just say everything is fine till here.
'But as expected, sleeping on the floor is a bit...' The girl then stood up and dusted herself off, she walked around trying to find something specific, then when she entered into one of the nearby ruins, she spotted a bed inside. Sure it looked like it hasn't been used in ages and is slightly falling apart but it can still be used and wasn't as dusty as it seemed. Besides even if many were to normally complain about the surroundings here, the girl didn't have much of it after all she wasn't someone's greedy to begin with, just a bit lazy. Half the roof has caved in and some light and a breeze leak in; it's very pleasant in fact, you wouldn't feel cold immediately neither would you have the blinding sunlight smacking against your face... though it may be troublesome if it rained but thankfully it isn't right now so nothing is wet yet.
In normal times she would have jumped onto the bed right away, obeying to her small wordly desires and sleep to her heart's content, but unfortunately the slight emptiness she felt in her stomach and the dry sensation in her throat was keeping her awake. 'I must be hungry and thirsty... that makes me wonder how much time did I slept? I probably wouldn't be able to keep on sleeping comfortably.' With slight regret to separate herself from her newfound bed, the girl reassured herself that she could always reunite with it later; now the top-priority was to find food and water, water seemed the most easy and if she wanted food then she would fetch some fruits into the nearby forest. If there wasn't anything at all then she would just come back here and sleep, after all it wasn't like she would die just by not being fed, right?
"...Wow." Just after she got out of the ruins, the girl got surprised by the sight that welcomed her. There was a man lying on the floor, unmoving. That man seems to be a short individual, he has untrimmed facial hair and black spiky hair and wears a turban-like cap on his head with some hair locks protruding out from it. He also wears plain baggy white pants and a long sleeve shirt. On top of that, he has a slip-on-head cloth that looks like a tank top and stretches down to the waist, and hangs off the waist all the way down to the knees without covering the sides of his legs; he fastens that cloth with a black belt-like band around his waist and dons a normal dark blue-grey scarf wrapped around his neck and long skinny black crew boots.
'What a awfully overdressed man...' The girl couldn't help but think like this, indeed the weather wasn't the warmest possible, but wasn't he hot like this under the impact of the blazing sunlight directed like this? Either this man was someone's who had a bad blood circulation, either he liked to feel warm, or he was just an idiot. ...Yup, it seemed more of the third option to her than all the others.
"Ah, right... Shouldn't I say 'woah' instead of... 'wow'? It does seems like a serious situation after all, well nevermind, it doesn't seems that important but just in... case," The girl start to search among her memories and all the teachings she had been put under, was there actually one of them that could be useful in such a situation? Then the lessons of a certain class she was forced to attend, of course she already forgot the majority of it by now but she also remember a few things.
1. If you find an unconscious person, first, call out to them (if possible don't touch them, we don't know if they are carrying any wounds or not).
"Mister... Mister―? Mister~!"
"..."
"No answer, huh...? Next, what to do... again?"
2. If they don't respond, check their breath and pulse, then depending on the situation call for help.
"Mister, I don't know if you can hear me or not... but I'll be checking your pulse so excuse me~" With that the girl's hand reached with difficulty to the man's neck (with the great amount of clothes he tightly wrapped around it). However later on, the girl would think about how simple it would have been if she just checked his pulse by pressuring on his wrist, especially that the man picked the wrong time to be conscious again woke up seeing a girl with her hand around his neck, so he did the only natural thing that anybody would have done...
"WOAH―?!" He suddenly snapped his eyes wide open and screamed his lungs out before slaming his palm against the girl's forehead and pushing her forward and certainly far away from him, the girl ended up rolling on herself before ended up laying on the floor too.
"Owowow..." The girl muttered as she sat up and then rubbed her slightly rosy forehead because of the surprise blow before directing to the man a slightly annoyed look, "What was that... for?"
"Th–this is what I should be asking!" The man wiped off the sweat present under his chin with the back of his hand (he must have sweated a lot in that outfit, Aria thought, however the real reason was of course not that), "Right after I opened my eyes, I see a girl trying to strangle me, how could I react in any other way than that?! Was that supposed to be an assassination attempt?! Do you have some kind of grudge against me?!"
"Eh? No... Did it seemed like... that?"
"It seemed! It DEFINITIVELY seemed like that! And don't tilt your head on the side like that about such a serious matter!"
"Aren't you well and... alive? Shouldn't it be fine like... this?"
"OF COURSE IT ISN'T! Don't you dare to brush it off so easily and act like as if nothing just happened! I almost got the fright of my life here, and I got myself into situations far more dangerous than this one yet I never have been so scared!"
"Oh my, how fearless you... are."
"And what with that dry way of speaking?! Your attitude doesn't sound like the words you're saying at all!"
"Seriously, I feel like rolling my eyes here and now but I'm holding myself... back. As a sign of politeness... See?"
"Well I don't even know what kind of efforts you're trying to make but you're not polite at all!" And thus the stranger she originally wanted to help kept on nagging about her actions.
'If I knew that it would have happened earlier, I wouldn't have gotten myself trying to help him, he wasn't in danger or anything after all...' Besides the fact that a total stranger was scolding her as if he knew her for years started to tires her out as expected, once there would be an opportunity to, she would definitively take that chance and escape route to run away from this weird situation right when she can! And if possibly the earlier possible.
"―What's wrong?! I've heard some loud noise since earlier!" With that another male voice was heard from the trees and the sound of bushes' leaves rustling together was also present, without doubt it seemed that another person started to ran towards here. Would this finally be her opportunity to escape? Did it happened right when she thought about it? If so then the Universe was so kind to lend her his help...
"Are you alright, Ging-san?!"
...
The man who just came out from the woods was this time a tall, slender man in his late twenties or early thirties. He was thin to the point of being gaunt, with long, flowing white hair with the longer locks reaching his knees. He had an inverted triangle shaped face with a hooked nose, a pointy chin and big, roundish-almond eyes with small hazel irises. He wore a light blue peaked cap resembling a beret, a long-sleeved white shirt with a turtleneck, an azure sash (perhaps an obi, she noted) wound three times about his waist, black trousers, and brown shoes.
The shorter man who was talking to the girl earlier then showed a sign of recognization as he called the newcomer out, "Oh! Kite! You just came at the good time." No doubts that the so-called 'Ging' was this man, it seemed that the two were strongly acquainted and with the respectful way the newcomer called the other, he must be quite loyal to him, the turban man didn't seemed wanting to let her go immediately so she couldn't expect for the hat man to help her either...
'...Farewell my chance to escape...' The girl silently gave up as she closed her eyes in resignation, she would take all the words she was planniong to thanks the Universe with back to her throat.
"Heh... So you just got a heatstroke because you overdressed... yourself? As expected, are you an... idiot?"
"How could I have known?! I was told that it would be cold here, and yet it's far more hot than what I have ever expected! ...And what do you mean by 'as expected'?!"
"P–please calm down, Ging-san!" And thus is poor Kite, being forced to play the middle-man and peacemaker between the two.
The girl managed to learn a lot of things about what happened since the white-haired man appearaed, he who was much more rational and patient than his companion, "So if I understand well... I kinda fell from the sky, ended up landing on Shorty Bearded Turban-san over here and slept for one full... day?"
"The worst of it was when your head clashed against my back, are you supposed to be some kind of rock or something...? ...Wait, 'Shorty Bearded Turban-san' you said?!" Once again the man shouted, truly what a noisy individual...
"Well I don't know your name so I had at least to dub you something, there are two 'misters' now after all and keep on calling you like that would hardly... help."
"My name is Ging! Ging Freecss! Didn't you got to heard it just earlier?!"
"Is that so? Sorry, I didn't listened, or didn't bother to remember? Either way it is surely one between the... two." In contrast of Ging's exploding outburst, the girl's attitude was calm and wasn't fazed by it, the deadpan look on her face while Ging seemed to have a vein on the verge of bursting open pulsing on his forehead didn't helped at all either.
'But still since I went my way to check if you were alive or not, so can't you at least be grateful for it? ...Not that I ever expected any thanks actually. Or rather how on earth did an attempt to help someone ended up being mistook for a murder attempt?' To her it was something that she couldn't comprehend, even though to others the reason of why was obvious.
"Err... Going back to the original talk, if I understand well you people are 'Hunters'... right?" She repeated what she just heard from the others.
Kite nodded at this, "Yeah. The Hunter Association is a non-governmental organization responsible for the testing and licensing of 'Hunters', individuals who have proven themselves through the rigorous exam to be elite members of humanity. With the passing of the Hunter Exam, an applicant is rewarded with a license to go almost anywhere in the world and do almost anything, thus declaring them Hunters. Typically, Hunters devote themselves to tracking down priceless items, mystical places, and the unseen wonders of the world."
"To think that you didn't even knew that, just how retarded are you?" Ging cleaned his ear with his finger while the girl just flatly answered back: "I just came here recently so I don't know about what's going on yet."
"No, no, no! There should be a limit at how ignorant you can be! Did you used to be someone's sheltered or something?!"
"Amazing... how did you guessed it... right?"
"ARGH―! Why on earth can't I communicate with this girl?!" Ging ruffled his hair messily in rage as he shouted his despair to the heavens above while Kite could only be in fluster of the side that he never saw from his master who usually composed even when he told him that he punched his son (on the contrary he even laughed about it)!
The girl just blinked at the scene, being totally unaware that she was the reason behind such extreme reactions as she directed her gaze over Kite again, "White long-hair Beret-san, please continue the talk and tell me what is the reason behind why you explained me so much, unless you are as simple-minded than Beardy over here, you wouldn't just tell me all of this by pure generosity... right?" Kite wanted to originally retort something at the title he got suddenly but the following words of the girl made him fall to silence.
With that both Ging and Kite looked at each other in silence while pondering to her words while she was just silently waiting for their response, Ging was the first one of the two to break the silence. "...Guess you're not as naïve as you seems."
'So I look like this kind of person from the outside, huh...?'
Ging stratched his head and then looked at her again, "But first of all, what's your name?"
"...Eh?" The girl's eyes snapped open at the unexpected question.
"Don't 'eh' me." Ging retorted flatly without missing a beat as his eyes narrowed a bit, "Since you already know our names shouldn't it be fair for us to know yours? And you should have introduced yourself first at the very beginning out of all!"
"...I, I am..." The girl began hesitantly as an old memory started to surface back into her mind―
"The reason of why I gave you such a name is because _"
"―My name is Aria... just Aria."
A/N.: Eventually who and who those two are would be revealed in the future. One of them is a canon famous character though, about from which source, it would still be kept as a secret.
