Author's Notes
Hi all! Sorry for the wait, I've been sick with covid the last few weeks and just gained the motivation to continue. Thank you all for the lovely wishes and for being patient with it all! Sorry, this is a bit of a short chapter, but It's something just to get the ball rolling again ^^
Enjoy as always!
Noah rubbed his eyes as he stared at the samurai, he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not.
A… samurai? what…
He blinked and stared at him more.
The samurai opened the door. "Just sit still, no need to stand." He locked the door behind him and looked at him.
Noah stood up anyway. "I prefer to not talk to someone from the ground." Noah frowned.
"A man who respects his own dignity… respectful." The samurai looked away from him.
Noah observed the back of him, looking at his blade as well as the carvings on the back of the uniform. He saw kanji on the back which he didn't understand as well as some katakana that he observed.
Hmmm…
He roughly read the words.
"Su… tee… shii…" Noah whispered loudly.
This caught the samurai's attention, he looks back. "You can read Japanese?"
Noah blinked. "Only a little… mostly from my weeb days, I don't know Kanji though." he then raised an eyebrow. "How do you know Japanese…? Are you from our world?"
The samurai smirked under his helmet. "Not exactly… I can tell you aren't too knowledgable in Japanese considering you can't translate…"
Noah frowned. "What does Suteeshii mean?"
"Think about it." The samurai faced him. "Where you are, who's place is it?"
"Suteeshii…. Suteeshii… St… Staci." Noah frowned. "It's the Japanese name for Staci, correct?"
The samurai nodded.
"But… What does Staci have to do with you? You clearly work for her, yes? This doesn't answer the question of where you're from. Are you a total drama contestant?" Noah looked a bit perplexed.
The samurai smirked more. "No. I am from here."
"Stop delaying. And tell me." Noah looked a bit more agitated.
The Samurai faced him. "Fine… I am Staci's uncle."
Noah blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Uh… what? How can her uncle be from here… she's not from here."
The samurai smirked more. "That is true yes.. in any other circumstance it wouldn't make sense.
"Then what circumstance is this?" Noah frowned and raised an eyebrow.
"Heh… her power of course." The samurai continued his smirk at him.
"Her power? What is her power?" He frowned.
"It's quite a wonderful power actually… you aren't going to believe it…" He looked at Noah, ready to speak.
"After all the things I've seen so far. I'll believe anything, to be honest…" Noah grumbled a bit and looked up at him.
"Hm." The samurai smirked. "I guess so… anyway. Staci has the power of bringing lies to life."
"Lies… to life? Elaborate." Noah demanded.
"basically… you know how she's known for lying a lot about her relatives?" the samurai asked.
"... yeah, I've heard about all that. Pretty sure her annoyance is why she got eliminated." He frowned.
"Didn't you also get eliminated early for your horrible personality?" The samurai asked.
"H-how do you even- how do you know that?" Noah squinted his eyes.
"heh… it turns out Staci talks a lot about the show." The samurai smirked.
"Gh… anyway. What is this power exactly? 'Lies to life'? Something to do with her lying?"
The samurai nodded. "Yes, she has the power to make actual real-life things out of her lies. One day she said that her great great great great great great uncle was a samurai, and well, here I am."
Noah frowned and stared at the samurai in front of him.
"So you know how to fight like one too? not just look like one?" Noah asked.
The samurai nodded.
Noah felt a bit of fear from the power. He realised how busted that power could be if she used it right.
This… may be much harder than we expected...
….
Leonard was talking to himself, reminding himself of the ingredients for the potion.
"Avocado... Fenugreeks… Daisies… Wild garlic… Wild lettuce." He talked to himself more as he roamed and roamed.
"Well I need to get fenugreeks but where do I get them hmm… you don't usually find them in the wild much." He frowned a bit as he walked out of the town.
He looked up at the signs ahead.
"Ah I wish I had my special enchanted eye gear right now" Leonard blinked as he squinted his eyes at the sign.
"hmmm… well there's the way out of the city… and a sign to the river… hmmm oh! Ah yes, why didn't I think of this place before" He stared at the sign that led to a place called the 'North Passage Farms'.
"Fenugreeks tend to be grown on farms, hopefully, they have a small patch there" He smirked as he decided to follow the path to the farms. He knew they weren't that far, only around an hour walk away.
…
Trent was just enjoying himself while walking to the market, through all the pathways, he basically knew the town pretty well now, well at least this part of town anyway.
He smiled to himself. As he played with his little bag of coins, throwing it up and down lightly while walking.
Well, this shouldn't be too hard now. It's only getting some stuff from the market. Just need to make sure it was directly taken from the wild.
He smiled and walked. He lost a bit of concentration and suddenly he missed catching the bag of coins, the bag falling onto the ground and scattering coins everywhere.
"Ah!" Trent panicked as he tried to get down but it was already too late, the coins rolled into the nearby gutter.
"N-no!" Trent groaned.
"Of course… ghhh" He frowned and got up.
"Just my luck man…" He grumbled a little and walked to the market.
God, I feel like Noah right now…
….
Dwayne was walking and frowned a bit.
Huh… I was so eager to find daisies but I'm not really sure where I'd even find them… Usually, I see them in fields but I've never actually seen a field since we got here. It's mostly been forests and cities.
He frowned a bit and looked around to find some locals until he spotted a purple woman and walked up to her.
"Hey there!" Dwayne smiled.
The woman looked at him curiously. "Yes?"
"Erm, I was just wondering if you knew a place to get daisies?" Dwayne asked.
"The flower?" She questioned.
He nodded. "Yeah, the flower, just a few, like to buy, or pick up from the ground, just anywhere." He smiled.
"Oh, there's a flower store over there." She pointed to a flower shop that was nearby. It was a green building with flowers everywhere outside and inside, it looked almost infested.
"Oh wow! Ok thank you" he smiled and walked to the store.
He opened the door, and the sound of the bell on the door was heard. He smiled and looked around.
In the store itself, it looked a bit rustic, it was a bit difficult to navigate as flowers and plants tended to overflow into the main walkway. He saw many unique types of flowers, some he recognised and others he questioned even could be found on earth. He blinked and stared at one which was a red and yellow flower which according to the label if you ate it would allow you to shoot fire.
"huh…" He blinked.
He looked around more and saw a person at the counter, currently turned around and watering some flowers.
"Hey!" Dwayne smiled and looked at them.
"Ooh?" The person looked back at Dwayne. "How may I help you?" They smiled at him.
"Do you have daisies?" Dwayne smiled.
"Oh? Daisies huh… I believe we do." The person then walked from the counter past Dwayne to the left corner of the store, going through a few vines until they picked up a plant pot with a few daisies in them.
"Here you go" The person smiled as they passed it over to him. "That should be 4 silver pieces." They smiled.
"Ah." Dwayne rummaged through his pocket and gave it to them. They said their goodbyes as he walked out of the rustic store.
He just stood there outside of the store and blinked for a moment.
"Well… that was surprisingly easy" He chuckled.
…
Leonard finally got to the farms, in his view was a large number of fields and farms, plenty of wheat, fruit and other things being grown in the area. There were plenty of barns, animals and other things.
"Huh…" he blinked and frowned.
Now, where can I find these fenugreeks.
He started walking along the pathway, he kept his eyes open to see if he would even spot a farm that would even have such a plant. Even though it's a farming plant, it isn't too common. Most of the things that were here were just a bunch of fruit and veg. There were plenty of fruit trees.
Leonard decided to stop at a fruit tree and look up, he saw a bunch of clementines.
"Well… I must refill my stamina." He smirked as he grabbed and started climbing the tree.
"G-gh…" He struggled a bit. He definitely didn't have muscle strength like Trent. He winced a bit as he finally grabbed hold of a clementine and pulled it off.
"A-ah!" He smirked to himself in pride before he suddenly fell onto the ground, forgetting that he stopped gripping so hard on the tree in his moment.
"G-ahh!" He winced as he landed on his back. "W-well.. at least I got you" He smiled at the clementine and peeled it to eat.
He finally got up and continued his trek as he ate the clementine. he felt the warm sun hitting his face as he walked. He did enjoy the scenery around him, it definitely was a beautiful part of the continent, the grass was very well kept and green.
He walked for around 20 minutes until he spotted something intriguing in his sights. Purple cows, Leonard blinked a bit as he saw them, however, that wasn't what was getting his attention the most, it was what they were eating.
Fenugreeks!
His eyes widened as he stared at the cows eating the fenugreeks. He ran over to the fenced area and looked around hoping that he wouldn't get caught.
I… I just need to get a few…
He took a deep breath and climbed the fence, almost falling onto the ground as he did.
"O-ok.. let's go.." He smirked as he snuck over to the fenugreeks and grabbed a handful.
"Hehe-"
"Hey!" a voice was heard from the nearby barn.
"A-ah!" Leonard screamed, almost dropping the fenugreeks.
The man stood there and frowned at him. "Just what are you doing with my fenugreeks? I need to feed my cows you know."
"O-oh… I'm just on a quest sir! It's required to save my party member Noah!" Leonard said.
The man perked up a little as he heard Noah's name. "Noah? A tanned looking male? Brown hair? A bit full of himself?" The man asked.
Leonard nodded.
"Oh! I know him, are you part of that gang of his then? I remember picking up him and his friends before they crashed my cart… took me ages to get these babies back with me" He said as he patted one of the purple cows. "The name is Carnal" he smirked.
"Leonard." Leonard smiled back.
"Heh.." Carnal smirked. "Eh… well if you need them then take them. Just do me a favour."
"Oh?" Leonard looked at him.
"Be sure to bring him back safe, ok?" Carnal smiled.
"Of course!" he smiled.
As he was about to leave he turned around.
"One question." Leonard pondered.
"oh?" Carnal looked at him.
"How come you're just letting me have it? Like without payment or anything?" Leonard blinked.
"Heh.." Carnal smirked a bit. "I have a feeling you'll need it more than I do… I have a feeling your whole group is more important than we think."
"Eh?" Leonard blinked.
Carnal chuckled. "Don't worry, it's just a feeling" He smiled.
Leonard blinked and nodded. "Well… alright then! I wish you well on your farming skill! I'm sure you can reach level 99 soon!" He smiled as he walked off.
"See ya mate." Carnal smiled.
…
Trent was just casually on the floor by the market.
"spare change?... please?" Trent frowned as people just walked past him without even acknowledging his existence.
I would just go back to Scarlett but.. hm I feel I don't want to keep owning her stuff…
He frowned as he continued to beg, no one listening to him still. He frowned and sighed.
Hmmm, there must be something I can do… the veg isn't that cheap…
He thought for a moment as he pondered until suddenly he got an idea.
"Oh!" he smirked as he rummaged through his guitar bag and got out his guitar.
"Now…" He smirked as he started playing a song onto it. He placed the guitar bag on the ground and hoped that he could get people tipping him now. He played a soft song on the guitar, nothing crazy, just something generic and calming.
He started lightly singing with his own beat, closing his eyes and getting right into it, tapping his foot with the song. He could hear coins being dropped into his guitar case as people walked past.
He smiled brightly as he continued on until the song was finished.
"ah…" he blinked and opened his eyes, he looked down to see a bunch of bronze and a few silver pieces on the ground.
Here we go…
He smirked to himself as he picked up the change and went off to get his stuff.
…
Scarlett was just chilling back at her little infirmary until she heard the door open.
"Hey!" Dwayne was seen storming inside, smiling away as he held his daisy pot.
"mew..!" Perdi looked up at him, swaying their tail a bit.
"Oh hey, Perdi!" Dwayne smiled down at her as he saw her just looking up. He then looked at where Scarlett was sitting. "So I got the daisies, anyone else back yet?"
Scarlett shook her head. "No, not yet. Just put the daisies over there" She pointed to a cleaned and empty table. "I can deal with the rest" She smirked.
Dwayne nodded and placed the plant pot down.
"I hope Noah is doing ok.." Dwayne said sadly as he sat down.
"I'm sure he's fine" Scarlett observed the daisies and then looked at the recipe. She then proceeded to pick them and start grinding them up in a bowl.
"Yeah, I know he'll be fine but I still worry you know? I don't know, ever since Junior has been gone, he's kinda filled that son role." Dwayne said with a sad chuckle.
"Yeah, I get it. Child gone, it's nice to have someone to fill the void." She blinked and looked down a little.
She thought about her previous team, all the fun memories she had with them, now just the past, never to be experienced again with the same people. She just sighed a bit and then thought of the new group, hoping it doesn't end up the same. It definitely was its own void being filled.
"Everything ok?" Dwayne looked at her.
"Yeah.. just thinking about things. Don't worry about it" She blinked.
Dwayne nodded. "I'm always here if you want someone to talk to, you don't have to be alone in whatever it is." he smiled at her.
"Heh… thanks." She gave a small smirk.
Dwayne smiled back at her and then relaxed more. "You know... I know Junior is ok."
"Oh? How do you know that?" She questioned.
"When you become a parent. You can sense both when your child is in danger and sense when they are ok. It's intuition." He smirked.
She raised an eyebrow. "Well… I've never been a parent so I guess I can't relate… but I do hope that intuition is correct." She started smiling.
"I know it's correct" Dwayne smiled and relaxed.
Suddenly they heard the door open, Trent came in, exhausted and a bit tired. He was holding bags of the veg.
"Gah.. hey guys" He let a small smile in exhaustion.
"Hey, Trent!" Dwayne smiled.
"What happened to you?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow.
"Oh.. its a long story. Don't worry about it" He chuckled nervously as he placed the veg down.
"Is Leonard not back ye-"
"Salutations!" Leonard stormed in holding a bag of fenugreeks. "Carnal says hi by the way!"
"Carnal? The purple cow guy? You saw him?" Trent blinked.
"Yeah! he was feeding fenugreeks to the cows and I told him about Noah and he gave me them" Leonard smirked. "I see I rolled a good persuasion check" He smirked.
"Oh wow, I'd love to visit him some time" Dwayne smiled. "I still feel we owe him honestly… We should get him a cake or something"
"What kinds of cake do people like?" Trent looked at Scarlett.
Scarlett just stood there blinking and barely listening. "Uh… what." She blinked more. "I kinda lost focus as soon as you guys went on… sorry." She smirked. "I'm going to just mix the ingredients and start brewing, I'll be back." She nodded, grabbed the ingredients and walked off.
"How long will it take!" Trent asked.
"Oh, about a day." She said as she walked into the kitchen.
"It takes like 4 hours to brew and almost a day for it to finally relax and be usable!" She shouted from the kitchen.
"A day?" Trent blinked.
"What are we going to do for a day?" Dwayne looked over to them.
"Hmmm, oh!" Leonard smirked and sat on the bed. "Want to share stories?"
"Stories?" Trent blinked.
"Yesss, it helps pass the time. We can talk about our pasts, our fun battles or backstories or whatever…" he smiled.
"I… suppose." Trent blinked.
"Oh, sure!" Dwayne smiled as he sat on his bed.
Trent followed onto his own bed and relaxed.
"I guess it's... storytime" Leonard smirked.
…
Noah sat back in the cell. The samurai has already disappeared, for now, leaving him alone with his thoughts again.
Noah sighed and just thought to himself, wondering what to do.
"hmm.."
He stood up and faced the wall.
I.. I need to unlock that power of mine…
He took a deep breath as he faced the wall. Until suddenly he punched it.
"G-ah!" he winced and grit his teeth in pain as he punched it, leaving his knuckles bruised.
"... I… again!" he suddenly punched it again.
"G-ghh!" he winced more, feeling as his knuckles started to drip a little blood.
If the need to survive is what gets me to unlock… then maybe I can train myself to feel that way…!
"Gahhh!" he suddenly punched the wall again, he let out a yell as he felt his fists crack a little.
"Ghh!" He squinted his eyes in pain and just kept going and going.
Meanwhile nearby, up the stairs, the samurai stood there hearing him.
"Ghahh!"
The samurai closed their eyes.
"Do what you must… the result will still be the same… The schemer…" He walked off.