Chapter 1 - Atsumari*Meeting
Jack sighed as he trudged through the thick forest. He had been transported through a time portal once more, after another fight with Aku.
He stopped to look at his surroundings. He noticed that he had been walking for about two hours now, so decided to sit and rest while taking in the environment around him.
It was mostly bamboo trees, and some familiar plants. The forest had reminded him of the thicket of trees near his home in ancient Japan in which he used play in for hours on end when he was small. He had pretended to be a Samurai, fighting off imaginary demons and armies. Now that he had done, and is still doing the things he thought up as a child, he learned that the life of a Samurai warrior was not what he had anticipated.
The sun was at a 4 o'clock position in the sky, from what he could tell. He held his breath for a moment, trying to listen for the sound of running water. He remembered hearing water a while back, and found a small stream. Perhaps it was still around.
He was relieved when he once more heard the sound of water. He headed toward the sound, and found a stream pouring into a spring, and breaking off once more into a stream. He walked towards the water, removing his sandals, and stepping into the pleasantly cold water.
He then remembered that he had not bathed for the past 3 days, and thought it would be a good idea to soak in the water for a short time. Besides, it would probably feel great after a such a long hike and battle, for that matter.
He undressed, but kept his sword near, just in case. He took out the tie in his hair and sank down into the water, letting his hair flow around him. It felt good to let his hair down every now and then. It made him feel wild and free, and felt even better when it was floating weightless around his scalp and face.
A drop of water fell on his nose. His eyes snapped open to see deep brown, Asian eyes staring at him. Long black hair was mingling with his own and brushing his cheeks.
He suddenly jumped up and reached for his sword. In his ready stance, he looked at the being who had surprised him. He was floating in the water, hair covering his chest, and his lips submerged.
"What do you want?" Jack called out, as menacingly as he could, standing nude in front of the young man.
The man just blinked.
"What do you want?" Jack repeated, louder.
The man just blinked once more.
"If you don't answer me, we'll have to fight!"
The being in the water turned, stood up full height, and walked over to the other side of the spring.
Watching the other exposed man walk across the spring fazed him a bit.
"Come back and state who you are!" he called out.
The other man simply pulled on a fighting style male kimono similar to his, only a shiny midnight blue. He tied a silver piece of belt-like cloth around his waist, and drew a sword. He tied his hair back into a low ponytail, and then turned to face Jack once more.
Great, another fight, Jack thought. He was quite tired, and just wanted to rest, but his curiosity of this strange man kept growing.
The man walked across the spring, the hem of his kimono becoming wet from dragging across the water. He finally stopped in front of Jack, and pointed to Jack's own kimono.
"Ah, um, yes that would help," Jack said as he pulled the bottom half of his kimono on, and tied it around his waist. He felt he was blushing slightly at the idiocy he had shown, and thought that this man must think he was a dolt, or a pervert, just watching him getting dressed and not dressing himself.
"First, soldier, what should I call you?"
"Reimu," he said calmly. "And you?"
"Jack"
Reimu stood in a ready position, and Jack imitated him. With his shirt off, he felt a bit more freedom inside of him, his longer-than-shoulder-length hair brushing his shoulders, water leisurely sliding down his back and chest.
Reimu struck at him first, Jack blocking with his sword. Jack pulled away, and swung at his feet. He jumped up, and flipped backwards, and ran back to Jack, sword ready.
Jack prepared to block, but at the last moment, Reimu jumped and flipped over him. Quickly, Reimu swung downward with his legs and tripped him.
Jack, not quite expecting this, landed on the ground, Reimu quickly advancing. Jack jumped up just in time to avoid a blow from his attacker's sword. He stood a couple feet from Reimu, and charged this time.
It was Reimu's turn to be surprised. Not responding fast enough, Jack managed to cut him along the stomach and face, not deep though, he still wanted to know who exactly Reimu was.
He quietly cried out in pain, and narrowed his eyes, charging at Jack this time. This time, Jack had not got out of the way fast enough, and Reimu made identical cuts on his left cheek and a diagonal mark across his stomach.
Creative, Jack thought as he jumped over him, mimicking Reimu's move before. He swung his legs downward, and tripped him. Jack then jumped over his body and stood, ready once more.
Reimu leapt up, obviously in a bit of pain. He gritted his teeth as they both charged at each other.
Jack stood in Reimu's last position, back facing his opponent. His sword was pointing towards the ground, as he had just made a swing. Reimu was in Jack's last position, back towards him, sword pointing towards the ground, as he had also just made a swing.
Jack noticed a large, deep cut across his chest. So he did get me, Jack thought. I'm sure I got him.
He turned to look at his adversary. He had cut his shirt so it slid off his chest, a slash mark across his own chest, almost identical to Jack's.
The two men turned to face each other, when Jack discovered that it had not been a man he was fighting.
Bare breasts with a cut across them were protruding from the shirt he had just cut off of her.
Jack muffled a shout as he turned, blushing.
Reimu's a woman! Jack thought.
"Gomen nasai, Samurai. Men I challenge usually think of me as a weakling, so I dress in their clothes in order fight a decent battle.
Reimu's a woman! Jack thought, once more.
Jack was actually not that comfortable fighting women, and he had almost gone all out on this one. She's clever, he thought.
In fact, Jack wasn't that comfortable around women, period. He really hadn't grown up around many, except for his mother, and a few young girls he met in his teenage years traveling and training.
That was the reason he wasn't comfortable around women. But there was a bit more about the girls he met so long ago, when his was in his nineteenth year.
"Jack-san, did you hear me?" Reimu asked.
Jack snapped out of his memories.
"Um, yes, I did."
"Okay."
There was then that uncomfortable silence as Jack blushed even more. He felt very stupid blushing.
"Um, excuse me, obasan, but um, your um..."
"What?" she asked obliviously.
"Um, your, um, ahem, breasts..."
"My...? Oh!" she suddenly called out, covering herself as best as she could. Jack then noticed that it was very hard for her to do because of, well, her strangely larger than average breasts. He had no idea on how he did not notice this while fighting.
"Gomen, gomen," she said, bowing and blushing. She turned and ran across the spring, picked up a more feminine shirt, pulled it over her head, and ran into the forest.
"Wait! Obasan!" he yelled after her, running across the spring and chasing after her. He could see her long black hair waving in the distance.
"Obasan! Gomen for seeing your, um, yeah, but WAIT!"
He felt very foolish saying "um" so much, it seemed like he was back into his twelfth and thirteenth years, just beginning to learn about a female's body.
He sped up, obviously faster than Reimu, but couldn't stop in time, so he knocked into her, and they both fell down.
"Okay, okay, you've caught me, you've caught me," she said, exhaust showing in her voice.
Another uncomfortable silence.
"Um, Jack-san, can you please get off?"
Jack then noticed that he was on top of the young woman. He quickly pulled himself off of her, and offered a hand to help her up. She took it, and Jack discovered how soft her hand was. He hadn't touched a woman since he had last seen his mother.
"Something wrong?" she asked, him still holding her hand after she was up.
"Non, non, it's just I haven't touched woman in so long-"
She pulled her hand away quickly and bringing it to her chest, glaring at him. "Hentai..." she muttered.
"What? Oh, non, not like that! I've been on a quest for such a long time, I just haven't touched a woman's hand-"
She narrowed her eyes even more, massaging her hand.
"Non! Not like that! I'm not a hentai, it's just-" He sighed. No matter how he tried to re-word his thoughts, they just didn't come out the right way.
He looked her in the eye.
"Obasan, gomen nasai, alright? I don't mean to act this way, it's just you caught me off guard, me thinking you were male and whatnot, but you pulled it off flawlessly, and you are the only being I've met who's equal to me in the sword-fighting area."
She finally smiled. "Domo arigato." Jack felt relieved.
"Here, let us go back to the spring. All of my things are there, as well as yours," she said, turning to walk back in the direction of the spring.
He ran up to her side. "I'm supposing you've had trouble with fighting men in the past," he said as a conversation starter.
"Yes, many times. If they weren't discriminating against me, they were harassing me if they did let me fight."
"That's terrible."
"Tell me about it," she sighed.
"Well, I do admit, I'm a bit uncomfortable fighting women, but when I do, I don't harass them. At least, not on purpose."
"How many women have you fought in the past?" she asked.
"Well, only a few. About four or five, including you."
"The women back from my village are very weak. They don't fight anyone."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's more interesting fighting men."
They arrived at the spring. Reimu gather her things and crossed over to the side Jack was on.
Jack was sitting near his sword's sheath, so he began to rub the smooth ebony
"There's one thing that perplexes me. How did you sneak up on me so quietly?"
"They don't call me Kuroneko back home for nothing!" she winked.
"Black cat? I understand the neko part, but kuro?"
"Well, I used to have thick, knee-length hair. They originally just called me Neko, but when I grew my hair out, they added Kuro."
"Ah," Jack said, understanding. "When I was young, they called me Chiisa."
"Chiisa? But you look about six feet tall!"
"But when I was young, they called me Chiisa because I was so scrawny, and I pretended to be a Samurai with my little wooden sword. Papa called me Chiisasamu-san, but it was shortened to just Chiisa."
"Kawaii!" she exclaimed. "I shall call you Chiisa-san from now on."
"Must you?" he groaned.
"It fits you well, even if you are taller than me!"
Jack looked over at the girl sitting next to him. He noted that she was actually quite beautiful.
"Reimu-"
"Kudasai, call me Mochidzuki."
"Mochidzuki?" he asked, confused.
"Ah, I should tell you my full name," she said, standing.
"I am Reimu Mochidzuki of Sendai, Nippon," she said, bowing. "Heir to the Toutoi Reimu Shinto Shrine of Sendai, a miko-in-training, and expert swordswoman and martial artist," she said honorably, then bowed.
"Sacred Revelation Shrine, ne? I'm sure you had rather fascinating childhood."
"Very much so. I was the second youngest of five, the only girl in the family, excluding my mother."
"I was an only child. I felt very bored most of my childhood days. But I had three close friends, so it wasn't that terrible."
"That's good," Mochidzuki said, smiling subtly.
"So, should I call you Zuki-san, or Mochi-san, or Mochidzuki-san, or Reimu- san, or Kuroneko-san, or just obasan, or-"
"That's enough!" she said, laughing, "You can call me whatever you choose! Well, whatever you choose from the names you just said."
"Okay then. I shall call you Tsuki-san."
"Tsuki-san?"
"Well your name does mean full moon, does it not?"
She smiled once more.
"Tsuki-chan is good for me," she said.
"You're younger than I am? You look fairly mature to me."
"Arigato. I'm in my twenty seventh year."
"Ah. I'm in my thirtieth. Come to think of it, almost thirty-first."
They spent the next hour and a half discussing anything that came to their minds. Jack started warming up to her, and was glad to have someone near his age along with him.
"So, Chiisa-san, what brings you here?" she asked, laying down to look at the sky.
"Well actually, I have no idea. I was hiking for about two hours, when I became thirsty and found a stream, then I decided I would feel cleaner after bathing, so then, you came in."
"Ah."
"What brings you here?"
"Well my village sort of kicked me out-"
Jack was about to ask her why when...
"Don't ask. Long story, and I'll tell you later. Anyways, I've been dressing as a man and battling men, then letting them find out their butts were being kicked by a woman."
"Well that's good. I'm glad to see women fighting back after such oppression. But why are you here?"
"Well, I decided to take a month off in the forest to mediate at grow to love myself. I was in a bit of self-loathing a while back, so I decided it would be a good idea to just get away from all the business of the city."
"That reminds me, where are we?"
"The forest."
Jack rolled his eyes. "I mean, which city? And country, and for that matter, time?"
"Oh, well we're on the outskirts of Hikaru, Nippon. And they haven't really determined what year this is, the wise men of our capital are debating on how to number our four seasons."
"Oh. Well, which dynasty is it?" he asked.
"It's the Fujiwara Dynasty, at this time."
Jack almost fell over from his surprise.
"Chiisa-san? Chiisa-san, are you all right?" she said, sitting up.
"Did... did you say Fujiwara?"
Mochidzuki nodded like he was some type of dolt.
Fujiwara, Jack thought. That was the dynasty he had lived in.
He cleared his throat. "Who's the current emperor?"
"Oh, it's Toushi-sama."
He fell over once more.
"T-Toushi-sama?"
"You're very ignorant to this world, aren't you?"
"N-no, it's just, well you wouldn't understand."
She narrowed her eyes. "Try me."
He swallowed. "It's sort of hard to explain, but I'll try." He sat back up.
She nodded. Just as he opened his mouth, Jack felt a painful strike on the back of his head. He heard Mochidzuki yelling as he fell to the ground for the third time in the last fifteen minutes.
Shimatta, he thought. Aku's minions are back. His vision was starting to blur, but he was able to push himself up for a moment. He looked for Mochidzuki, but just as he saw her, he fainted and hit the ground once more.
Jack sighed as he trudged through the thick forest. He had been transported through a time portal once more, after another fight with Aku.
He stopped to look at his surroundings. He noticed that he had been walking for about two hours now, so decided to sit and rest while taking in the environment around him.
It was mostly bamboo trees, and some familiar plants. The forest had reminded him of the thicket of trees near his home in ancient Japan in which he used play in for hours on end when he was small. He had pretended to be a Samurai, fighting off imaginary demons and armies. Now that he had done, and is still doing the things he thought up as a child, he learned that the life of a Samurai warrior was not what he had anticipated.
The sun was at a 4 o'clock position in the sky, from what he could tell. He held his breath for a moment, trying to listen for the sound of running water. He remembered hearing water a while back, and found a small stream. Perhaps it was still around.
He was relieved when he once more heard the sound of water. He headed toward the sound, and found a stream pouring into a spring, and breaking off once more into a stream. He walked towards the water, removing his sandals, and stepping into the pleasantly cold water.
He then remembered that he had not bathed for the past 3 days, and thought it would be a good idea to soak in the water for a short time. Besides, it would probably feel great after a such a long hike and battle, for that matter.
He undressed, but kept his sword near, just in case. He took out the tie in his hair and sank down into the water, letting his hair flow around him. It felt good to let his hair down every now and then. It made him feel wild and free, and felt even better when it was floating weightless around his scalp and face.
A drop of water fell on his nose. His eyes snapped open to see deep brown, Asian eyes staring at him. Long black hair was mingling with his own and brushing his cheeks.
He suddenly jumped up and reached for his sword. In his ready stance, he looked at the being who had surprised him. He was floating in the water, hair covering his chest, and his lips submerged.
"What do you want?" Jack called out, as menacingly as he could, standing nude in front of the young man.
The man just blinked.
"What do you want?" Jack repeated, louder.
The man just blinked once more.
"If you don't answer me, we'll have to fight!"
The being in the water turned, stood up full height, and walked over to the other side of the spring.
Watching the other exposed man walk across the spring fazed him a bit.
"Come back and state who you are!" he called out.
The other man simply pulled on a fighting style male kimono similar to his, only a shiny midnight blue. He tied a silver piece of belt-like cloth around his waist, and drew a sword. He tied his hair back into a low ponytail, and then turned to face Jack once more.
Great, another fight, Jack thought. He was quite tired, and just wanted to rest, but his curiosity of this strange man kept growing.
The man walked across the spring, the hem of his kimono becoming wet from dragging across the water. He finally stopped in front of Jack, and pointed to Jack's own kimono.
"Ah, um, yes that would help," Jack said as he pulled the bottom half of his kimono on, and tied it around his waist. He felt he was blushing slightly at the idiocy he had shown, and thought that this man must think he was a dolt, or a pervert, just watching him getting dressed and not dressing himself.
"First, soldier, what should I call you?"
"Reimu," he said calmly. "And you?"
"Jack"
Reimu stood in a ready position, and Jack imitated him. With his shirt off, he felt a bit more freedom inside of him, his longer-than-shoulder-length hair brushing his shoulders, water leisurely sliding down his back and chest.
Reimu struck at him first, Jack blocking with his sword. Jack pulled away, and swung at his feet. He jumped up, and flipped backwards, and ran back to Jack, sword ready.
Jack prepared to block, but at the last moment, Reimu jumped and flipped over him. Quickly, Reimu swung downward with his legs and tripped him.
Jack, not quite expecting this, landed on the ground, Reimu quickly advancing. Jack jumped up just in time to avoid a blow from his attacker's sword. He stood a couple feet from Reimu, and charged this time.
It was Reimu's turn to be surprised. Not responding fast enough, Jack managed to cut him along the stomach and face, not deep though, he still wanted to know who exactly Reimu was.
He quietly cried out in pain, and narrowed his eyes, charging at Jack this time. This time, Jack had not got out of the way fast enough, and Reimu made identical cuts on his left cheek and a diagonal mark across his stomach.
Creative, Jack thought as he jumped over him, mimicking Reimu's move before. He swung his legs downward, and tripped him. Jack then jumped over his body and stood, ready once more.
Reimu leapt up, obviously in a bit of pain. He gritted his teeth as they both charged at each other.
Jack stood in Reimu's last position, back facing his opponent. His sword was pointing towards the ground, as he had just made a swing. Reimu was in Jack's last position, back towards him, sword pointing towards the ground, as he had also just made a swing.
Jack noticed a large, deep cut across his chest. So he did get me, Jack thought. I'm sure I got him.
He turned to look at his adversary. He had cut his shirt so it slid off his chest, a slash mark across his own chest, almost identical to Jack's.
The two men turned to face each other, when Jack discovered that it had not been a man he was fighting.
Bare breasts with a cut across them were protruding from the shirt he had just cut off of her.
Jack muffled a shout as he turned, blushing.
Reimu's a woman! Jack thought.
"Gomen nasai, Samurai. Men I challenge usually think of me as a weakling, so I dress in their clothes in order fight a decent battle.
Reimu's a woman! Jack thought, once more.
Jack was actually not that comfortable fighting women, and he had almost gone all out on this one. She's clever, he thought.
In fact, Jack wasn't that comfortable around women, period. He really hadn't grown up around many, except for his mother, and a few young girls he met in his teenage years traveling and training.
That was the reason he wasn't comfortable around women. But there was a bit more about the girls he met so long ago, when his was in his nineteenth year.
"Jack-san, did you hear me?" Reimu asked.
Jack snapped out of his memories.
"Um, yes, I did."
"Okay."
There was then that uncomfortable silence as Jack blushed even more. He felt very stupid blushing.
"Um, excuse me, obasan, but um, your um..."
"What?" she asked obliviously.
"Um, your, um, ahem, breasts..."
"My...? Oh!" she suddenly called out, covering herself as best as she could. Jack then noticed that it was very hard for her to do because of, well, her strangely larger than average breasts. He had no idea on how he did not notice this while fighting.
"Gomen, gomen," she said, bowing and blushing. She turned and ran across the spring, picked up a more feminine shirt, pulled it over her head, and ran into the forest.
"Wait! Obasan!" he yelled after her, running across the spring and chasing after her. He could see her long black hair waving in the distance.
"Obasan! Gomen for seeing your, um, yeah, but WAIT!"
He felt very foolish saying "um" so much, it seemed like he was back into his twelfth and thirteenth years, just beginning to learn about a female's body.
He sped up, obviously faster than Reimu, but couldn't stop in time, so he knocked into her, and they both fell down.
"Okay, okay, you've caught me, you've caught me," she said, exhaust showing in her voice.
Another uncomfortable silence.
"Um, Jack-san, can you please get off?"
Jack then noticed that he was on top of the young woman. He quickly pulled himself off of her, and offered a hand to help her up. She took it, and Jack discovered how soft her hand was. He hadn't touched a woman since he had last seen his mother.
"Something wrong?" she asked, him still holding her hand after she was up.
"Non, non, it's just I haven't touched woman in so long-"
She pulled her hand away quickly and bringing it to her chest, glaring at him. "Hentai..." she muttered.
"What? Oh, non, not like that! I've been on a quest for such a long time, I just haven't touched a woman's hand-"
She narrowed her eyes even more, massaging her hand.
"Non! Not like that! I'm not a hentai, it's just-" He sighed. No matter how he tried to re-word his thoughts, they just didn't come out the right way.
He looked her in the eye.
"Obasan, gomen nasai, alright? I don't mean to act this way, it's just you caught me off guard, me thinking you were male and whatnot, but you pulled it off flawlessly, and you are the only being I've met who's equal to me in the sword-fighting area."
She finally smiled. "Domo arigato." Jack felt relieved.
"Here, let us go back to the spring. All of my things are there, as well as yours," she said, turning to walk back in the direction of the spring.
He ran up to her side. "I'm supposing you've had trouble with fighting men in the past," he said as a conversation starter.
"Yes, many times. If they weren't discriminating against me, they were harassing me if they did let me fight."
"That's terrible."
"Tell me about it," she sighed.
"Well, I do admit, I'm a bit uncomfortable fighting women, but when I do, I don't harass them. At least, not on purpose."
"How many women have you fought in the past?" she asked.
"Well, only a few. About four or five, including you."
"The women back from my village are very weak. They don't fight anyone."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's more interesting fighting men."
They arrived at the spring. Reimu gather her things and crossed over to the side Jack was on.
Jack was sitting near his sword's sheath, so he began to rub the smooth ebony
"There's one thing that perplexes me. How did you sneak up on me so quietly?"
"They don't call me Kuroneko back home for nothing!" she winked.
"Black cat? I understand the neko part, but kuro?"
"Well, I used to have thick, knee-length hair. They originally just called me Neko, but when I grew my hair out, they added Kuro."
"Ah," Jack said, understanding. "When I was young, they called me Chiisa."
"Chiisa? But you look about six feet tall!"
"But when I was young, they called me Chiisa because I was so scrawny, and I pretended to be a Samurai with my little wooden sword. Papa called me Chiisasamu-san, but it was shortened to just Chiisa."
"Kawaii!" she exclaimed. "I shall call you Chiisa-san from now on."
"Must you?" he groaned.
"It fits you well, even if you are taller than me!"
Jack looked over at the girl sitting next to him. He noted that she was actually quite beautiful.
"Reimu-"
"Kudasai, call me Mochidzuki."
"Mochidzuki?" he asked, confused.
"Ah, I should tell you my full name," she said, standing.
"I am Reimu Mochidzuki of Sendai, Nippon," she said, bowing. "Heir to the Toutoi Reimu Shinto Shrine of Sendai, a miko-in-training, and expert swordswoman and martial artist," she said honorably, then bowed.
"Sacred Revelation Shrine, ne? I'm sure you had rather fascinating childhood."
"Very much so. I was the second youngest of five, the only girl in the family, excluding my mother."
"I was an only child. I felt very bored most of my childhood days. But I had three close friends, so it wasn't that terrible."
"That's good," Mochidzuki said, smiling subtly.
"So, should I call you Zuki-san, or Mochi-san, or Mochidzuki-san, or Reimu- san, or Kuroneko-san, or just obasan, or-"
"That's enough!" she said, laughing, "You can call me whatever you choose! Well, whatever you choose from the names you just said."
"Okay then. I shall call you Tsuki-san."
"Tsuki-san?"
"Well your name does mean full moon, does it not?"
She smiled once more.
"Tsuki-chan is good for me," she said.
"You're younger than I am? You look fairly mature to me."
"Arigato. I'm in my twenty seventh year."
"Ah. I'm in my thirtieth. Come to think of it, almost thirty-first."
They spent the next hour and a half discussing anything that came to their minds. Jack started warming up to her, and was glad to have someone near his age along with him.
"So, Chiisa-san, what brings you here?" she asked, laying down to look at the sky.
"Well actually, I have no idea. I was hiking for about two hours, when I became thirsty and found a stream, then I decided I would feel cleaner after bathing, so then, you came in."
"Ah."
"What brings you here?"
"Well my village sort of kicked me out-"
Jack was about to ask her why when...
"Don't ask. Long story, and I'll tell you later. Anyways, I've been dressing as a man and battling men, then letting them find out their butts were being kicked by a woman."
"Well that's good. I'm glad to see women fighting back after such oppression. But why are you here?"
"Well, I decided to take a month off in the forest to mediate at grow to love myself. I was in a bit of self-loathing a while back, so I decided it would be a good idea to just get away from all the business of the city."
"That reminds me, where are we?"
"The forest."
Jack rolled his eyes. "I mean, which city? And country, and for that matter, time?"
"Oh, well we're on the outskirts of Hikaru, Nippon. And they haven't really determined what year this is, the wise men of our capital are debating on how to number our four seasons."
"Oh. Well, which dynasty is it?" he asked.
"It's the Fujiwara Dynasty, at this time."
Jack almost fell over from his surprise.
"Chiisa-san? Chiisa-san, are you all right?" she said, sitting up.
"Did... did you say Fujiwara?"
Mochidzuki nodded like he was some type of dolt.
Fujiwara, Jack thought. That was the dynasty he had lived in.
He cleared his throat. "Who's the current emperor?"
"Oh, it's Toushi-sama."
He fell over once more.
"T-Toushi-sama?"
"You're very ignorant to this world, aren't you?"
"N-no, it's just, well you wouldn't understand."
She narrowed her eyes. "Try me."
He swallowed. "It's sort of hard to explain, but I'll try." He sat back up.
She nodded. Just as he opened his mouth, Jack felt a painful strike on the back of his head. He heard Mochidzuki yelling as he fell to the ground for the third time in the last fifteen minutes.
Shimatta, he thought. Aku's minions are back. His vision was starting to blur, but he was able to push himself up for a moment. He looked for Mochidzuki, but just as he saw her, he fainted and hit the ground once more.