Original: 1,304 words.

Edited: 1,648 words.

Upon the thick trees that covered the Elior Forest as a whole, one might easily surmise that it is easy to get lost in the vastness of the forest with a certain village hidden under its leaves. Even following the dirt path might seem unchallengeable for the weak and… no sense of direction.

But that certain person doesn't know that part. And naturally, as young as he is, being a 10 year old boy, he has certainly no clue as to where he is now.

To begin with, he didn't even know where he is right now.

"Where the heck am I?"

The young boy groaned in frustration, with evil-looking eyes and black hair, wearing a simple black shirt and a short matching his upper clothing. With only a small bag he brought on his person before he came to this estranged forest.

"I thought this is only a simple field trip and I somehow went somewhere that I didn't know a forest in Japan has this place. Is this what that character, I forgot her name is, from Spirited Away felt she's in an unknown place. But, in this case, I'm all alone without mom and dad here!"

Grabbing his head in frustration, the young boy 一 in his surely eccentric behavior normal for his age 一 had certainly felt alone in this environment with no people nor buildings seen in sight. With seemingly no end to the sea of trees presented in front of the eyes of someone as young as he was.

Even so, the loneliness he experienced was growing even before whisking away to this forest.

Having not been able to consistently to keep up his grades as he was once the smartest in class, not able to keep being the fastest in his class anymore—

And, not being able to keep up expectations of people of being as his father's son.

The boy, gritting his teeth at the traumatic thought of not being able to do anything about that, he continued his trek on the dirt path. Trying his best to suppress the painful memories of failing the expectations of others.

It hurt him. It hurt him, that in the long run, he couldn't possibly keep up the expectations the people his father considered as friends had about him. The expectation of being Natsuki Kenichi's son. The expectations of being the best at what he does.

The boy clicked his tongue, and grunted as he continued on. With his frustrations becoming more and more apparent by every step he made.

He wanted to forget that. He wanted to erase that image from his mind. He wanted to stop being reminded of that.

Even as young as him, the expectations people had in him, weighed deeply in his mind.

That sole thought alone made him desperate. Desperate in fact to prove that he wasn't failing. That he wasn't becoming stagnant in his growth.

To prove that he was truly his father's son.

"Ahhh!"

The boy let out a small shriek as he heard a nearby bush rustled. Nearly scaring the living daylights of the boy who knew not where he truly was.

Seconds pass, and nothing particular has happened yet. Even then, he waited for a few more moments.

Eventually, after seeing nothing happened, he let out a sigh of relief that nothing scary had appeared out of the bushes after several moments of staring in fright at the bushes.

But then, he noticed something out of the ordinary.

He saw someone hiding underneath the bushes behind a log, whose rear end was obviously seen to the kid with a nasty stare at the sight that behold him.

You've got to be kidding me.

The boy thought at the poorly hidden person. Subconsciously knowing that it was a kid, judging by the way that person hiding and how they looked like.

It's poorly hidden anyway.

"Oi! I know I can see you over there."

The boy called out to the small person at the bushes. Overcoming his initial fears after seeing it was just someone who is hiding very poorly in the bushes.

Seeing the kid, a girl based on her very small shriek that sounded too cute for his ears to hear, jerked in response to his voice.

With the mysterious kid's cover blown up, which was frankly a poor way to describe of hiding herself, let herself known to the boy from another world.

Now that he saw the kid, what he did saw wasn't something he expected her to be.

She was somewhere about seven-years-old, wearing clothing he might as well saw on TV, with colors of purple and white being the main colors seen on her clothes. And she looked quite well on what she wore which surprised him more than he should.

But that wasn't the only reason that surprised him.

No, it was her beautiful silver-colored hair, fair skin, with eyes the color of a beautiful… amethyst? That's what he overheard some of the older kids talk about when complimenting something about a girl's features. The way they shone attracted him.

He then saw her pointed ear. Which looked odd to him, and he remembered of Elves from the mangas he read and some anime he saw lately seemed to be the only people having those kind of ears so far.

Nonetheless, having seen her overall appearance, he found her to be—

"So cute."

"Eh?"

He subconsciously let out those words, leaving the girl confused at his reaction. With her head tilting on the side wondering what he meant by that.

Realizing this, the boy having a flustered look on his face, he immediately apologized:

"I-I'm sorry, it's just it's the first time I-I've seen a pretty girl— I mean a cute— ahh! This is so embarassing, and I'm sorry for having you hear me say something so weird!"

"N-No! I mean, I don't know what you meant by that. But I think you're a bit weird."

Attempting to stop the boy, her already adorable face looking more cute than usual made him blush even harder than he had in his entire life. His flustered face tried to find any excuses he could, but failed miserably.

"Ahh! Hearing someone call me weird isn't something I expected someone with a cute face to say that about me!"

"Now you're saying stuff that I don't understand."

The girl said with a pouting face. Which resulted in him making a flustered expression even harder than before.

It took a good few minutes for him to calm down and the girl to stop calling him a "dunderhead" at the words she didn't know about and the way he speaks as well. Including the fact she found him a bit weird.

The boy moaned in embarrassment, his first meeting of a person, a girl no less, in this forest felt he made a wrong first impression on her.

"To think a girl with a cute face like that would say something nobody talks anymore."

He mumbled under his breath. Which fortunately for him, the girl did not hear him say that.

"Ah, sorry about that. But do you know where am I right now? I think I'm lost."

He apologized as he tried to know where he was and wanted to know how he got here in the first place.

"You're in Elior Forest."

The girl almost instantly answered, thankfully letting him know where he is and telling him the place where he is now at the same time.

But, her answer made him realize something.

"Thanks. But do you know a place called Japan? I don't think I'm in the same country anymore."

He told the girl, who tilted her head in confusion at what he meant by that.

"I don't know a place called Japan. Is it a city of Lugunica?"

"The heck is Lugunica?"

"Are you a dummy? Lugunica is the name of the country… at least that's what Geuse told me before he left a week ago."

"Who's Juice?"

"It's Geuse! He's a nice man that always visited the village once in every three months. Mother Fortuna seems to like him though. She always looks at him fondly as if she likes him."

"Sorry, sorry, I got it."

He said as he tried to pacify the girl with silver-hair over his mistake. But then said girl begins to say.

"Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Emilia. Just Emilia. What's your name?"

The girl, Emilia, she called herself, asked who the boy was after her short introduction.

The boy looked at her in surprise at the sudden, but welcoming introduction, as he gave her a pleasant smile.

Then, he gave her the name she would never forget.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru. Not only I'm hopelessly lost, but I'm completely broke with no money even in my bag."

With that, the first meeting of Natsuki Subaru and Emilia would forever change history.

Finally, taped that broken finger of mine. Who would've thought a single tap of a keyboard would lead to this.

Oh, hello everyone, gabrielchiong11, also known as Mamon Ramon from Reddit, here. And I'm to introduce to you a new fic with… questionable quality.

Now, I've seen a calling in a certain comment of a certain post to have fanfic writers to write this story. So, I volunteered which resulted in a broken finger.

Anyways, if this story gets popular, which I hope would but knew this is trash tier at most, I will continue this.

That's all I can say for now. Peace!