Italics = Japanese
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Chapter 10 — Blue
There is no blue without yellow and without orange.
-Vincent Van Gogh
ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ
ƸӜ̨Ʒ
I had never been in a situation where time ceased to exist.
I'd read about it from books where a character experiences a perfect moment, but it was their word against common knowledge. How does one go about measuring such a moment in time? Could it simply be compared to when a person is having fun and time passes by unaware that it had? Could it really be as simple as that?
It had to be, I mused as I sat idly by the stream with my legs stretched out before me. I could feel the soft breeze caress my exposed skin. The crisp green grass that lay underneath me tickled my skin yet offered such a comfortable, natural cushion. My ears picked up the soft twittering of birds and the soft gurgling sound of the stream before me. Never in my life had I been in a situation like this, not even close. I was away from the noise of the city and the electronics that we, as humans, have taken for companions. This was so peaceful, such a perfect spot to take a nap. This moment was literally perfect.
Unfortunately, as life would have it, this was not a situation where I could take full advantage of it.
Had I been aware knowing my name would ceased Sakura's observing my every move like a hawk, I would had revealed it earlier. Even so, that is not to say that I was set free to roam on my own free will. While I was here, relaxing and soaking up the littlest rays of sunshine that managed to pierce the gray clouds, she stood by the tree where I left the cloak. I found it peculiar how she stared at the piece of clothing as if it were to be some kind of interesting object she had never seen before.
"Sakura!"
I whipped around to face her, expecting of her to react in some way considering the urgent call of her name. Instead, she appeared to be unmoved by the voice. Even so, I cautiously stood up just in case — I don't know, someone attacked?
The voice itself did not sound familiar, so it didn't take a wild guess that I would soon meet another wonderful cast member of this bizarre play. Lo' and behold, there he rushed in… or should I say out? Too preoccupied to take notice of me as a barrage of their language was spoken between the two.
Other than being clad in the colors of orange and black, I was surprised to see his clothes looked remotely normal compared to the other three I had already met. As expected, I noticed the weird headband — this time the cloth material was black — with the metal plate and the strange symbol engraved into it. Just as you would expect with normality, his hair was nothing out of the norm other than being blonde.
After a quick exchange of words between them — clearly, Sakura having the stronger personality of the two —, my presence was acknowledged by Sakura's finger pointing in my direction.
It was interesting, really. I was not one to stare at a person for more than a couple of seconds — so as long as they weren't aware that I was — but today was a day of exceptions. It was only natural, right? Wear a costume and you will be bound to catch people's attention no matter how extravagant or simple the costume was.
And that's what this guy did.
It was not the clothes that made him stand out from the others nor his loud ways of communicating, no — it was nothing like that. It was a detail, if I could call it that. A slight one but nonetheless noticeable. It appeared to me that on his cheeks were faint whisker-like markings. Enough to catch my attention and apparently he took notice of this as he turned back to speak to Sakura in a quieter tone. Ha, as if I would be able to understand what they were saying.
They talked and talked. I managed to pick out my name amongst their conversation, the second time butchered up by the guy. There was no real reason why I needed to pay attention, they were both speaking too fast anyways. So I turned and faced the sky and with my eyes closed, I allowed myself to feel in the almost-serene atmosphere up until the guy suddenly butchered up my name again. I took a deep breath and turned to face them.
"It's pronounced as Ari-adna, not Arena."
While there was a high possibility that Sakura had mentioned that I wasn't exactly one of their kind, he still managed to look dumbfounded. It didn't help that his confused look and surprisingly azure eyes made him look comical and for the briefest moment, I could not help but feel smug right at that moment.
It did not take him long to compose himself before he pointed in the direction he came from and with a string of words I did not care to comprehend, I watched as he expressed what must be his annoyance – something you could easily tell by the tone of a person's voice. No sooner did Sakura stepped in and once again the two ignored me as they spoke, or more likely, bickered.
"Ariadna," Sakura called with a wave of her hand. As there was nothing for me to do other than follow her like a lost puppy, I made my way towards them.
Now being much closer to him, he no longer looked as comical as before but peeved. Whatever it was that Sakura said to him had not settled well with him and so it did not take a wild guess that I was the likely cause of his annoyance. With a shrug on my part, I waited for whatever it was I needed to do next.
"We have to head back, so get your cloak and follow us," Sakura said as she signaled towards the cloak she had previously been absorbed in.
I looked between her and it. "Cloak? You're talking about the cloak?" I asked, mostly referring to the only thing that was worthy of any attention out here.
"So you really are dumb, huh?" He asked. I turned to him and so did Sakura. "I thought she was just exaggerating!" He exclaimed, quite amused.
"Naruto," Sakura voiced, looking annoyed.
So, that was his name? Well, it wouldn't really surprise me considering all that I heard and seen. The name sounded strange enough and definitely foreign. Wouldn't hurt if I pronounced it, would it?
"Naruto."
He went quiet as I – once again – turned into the center of their attention. Since I wasn't all that fond of the silence that followed, I went on my merry way of a one-sided conversation. "Funny name, huh? Nah-ruh-toh." I finished with a wave of my finger, quite proud of myself for some bizarre reason.
He raised an eyebrow before he glanced over to Sakura, "is this her way of doing things?" She nodded in response. He then turned back to me and just as Sakura had done earlier, he pointed at my direction, "Areh-na."
"No, it's Ari-ahd-na."
This time around, he pronounced it correctly. He grinned when I acknowledged this – which was only with a nod of my head.
"Cloak," Sakura called my attention as she once again pointed towards the direction of the cloak. Either the word itself meant cloak or attention, I couldn't tell but it was certainly something she wanted me to pay attention to. Nodding – which seemed to be the only way of me communicating with them – I went and fetched the aforementioned piece of clothing.
After I tugged the cloak off the branch, I threw it over me and was about to follow after Sakura when Naruto called out to me. I turned, unsure what it was he wanted as I was supposed to follow Sakura. Instead, I saw him holding out a golden-like necklace with a rather large, strange looking, pendant. I looked at it then at him, what was that?
"You dropped this."
I turned to look for Sakura but she was long gone from my view; actually, I could still see her colorful hair peeking amongst the trees but yeah, she was gone. I turned back to him. "What?" He looked thoughtful but to my surprise and amusement, he mimed what he wanted to say. Actually, he looked a bit sheepish; it was the only way of him communicating and since Sakura wasn't around, that was the best way of doing things. Not that I could clearly communicate with him either.
From what I gathered – the necklace just so happened to have dropped from the cloak when I pulled it off the branch. At first I found it strange as I didn't remember ever feeling something while I had the cloak on, but after a quick search from the inside, I came across a deep pocket. Well, you couldn't really blame me for not knowing about it, after all, I just happened to have gone through a wide range of experiences in the last two days or was that three?
I looked down at the necklace then back up at him; technically, the necklace wasn't mine as it came from the cloak that I believe I might have stolen (it would explain my earlier experience with that...stranger). Perhaps, just perhaps, there was that possibility the person wanted the cloak back because of the necklace that lay within its pocket and not because he wanted to harm me? That wou-
"Ariadna?"
I blinked and reached out for the jewel; the ornament was surprisingly heavy for its size as it was placed in my open palm. After a couple of words, Naruto nodded towards the direction where Sakura had disappeared, I nodded in return as I curled my fingers around the pendant.
Why had I not noticed this before?
Sure, the house was rather large and situated in an unlikely place – though I would not mind living amongst the trees – a great hiding spot from prying eyes. Hell, I was not paying much attention to my surroundings anyway as I needed to use the bathroom. But as we neared the spot we – Sakura and I – departed earlier from, it hit me that the architecture of the large wooden dwelling – not the same one I was locked in – was influenced by Asian architecture. Unless…
"What country is this?" I asked as I turned to Naruto. "China? Japan? Thai- no, I don't remember seeing buildings like that in those photographs…" I said loudly, quite unaware that Sakura was approaching with the other two members of the group. Just as I had done earlier, Naruto shrugged at what I said as he turned to the others.
I ignored their conversation as I stared in awe at the building; everything looked so authentic and while I never actually been to any of the aforementioned countries, I had seen enough pictures to know. Was the house – or something as close as I could call it – made completely out of wood? It certainly looked liked it. Instinctively, I took a step forward only to stop when I felt someone grasp my upper arm. I looked to see that it belonged to Naruto who was not the only one to be staring at me. I awkwardly smiled as I pointed towards the building, "I-yeah… wanted to see… " I muttered.
The other three stood across from us, Sakura, Sigh and the Nameless One.
Like Sigh, the Nameless One had a blank look on him but unlike Sigh, his eyes were clearly expressive. He was obviously the oldest one out of the group, if not the leader – as the other three were attentive to his presence as he spoke but not before calling out to Sakura. Like a flash of lightning — or was it out of instincts?— , I yanked my arm away from Naruto's grasp as a thought dawned on me.
How the hell could I had missed that?!
IF the building had been "influenced" by Asian architect, what was the possibility that one of the people had a name associated with a country? Sakura was definitely not a strange name and in fact associated with one particular country...
"Holy shit," I exclaimed, stepping back from the group who were now looking at me in the most peculiar way. "I was right, huh? I mentioned Japan; are we in Japan?! How the hell did I end up here?" I gasped as I held my head between my hands.
This explained everything; their language that I could not comprehend but would explain why it sounds so hurried. Japanese, to my ears, is spoken quickly – I was only exposed to their language by the movies I had seen but that was only a few times. I wouldn't be able to quickly differentiate it from the other Asian languages to begin with.
This was definitely not good.
Shit, this changes everything!
Author's Note:
Why, hello there! Been a bit hasn't it? Safe to say it's been busy in my corner of the world — especially with the holidays, what a year, huh? Hope you're all safe and continue being so! Naturally, I haven't forgotten about this story nor do I plan on abandoning it either despite the length between the last update. I been meaning to update before the year ended buuuuut I started watching a new anime (Attack on Titan) and safe to say I got wonderfully distracted. Will I be writing a story for the fandom, yes. Will I put this story on hold because of it, no. I very much have a story to tell with this one!
Thank you all for those who drop in a review and for those who alerted/favorited this story — I appreciate it a lot!
As always, thank you for reading!
