Mai
The ninja before her tilts his head, a brief but hopeful smile crossing his face. "You recognize me now?" He wonders tentatively.
Mai's eyes almost bulge out of its sockets.
The man's glasses glint as a thunder breaks through, giving her a somewhat worried once-over. "Are you alright? You have an umbrella?" His serious expression doesn't waver, yet he seems as polite as for asking.
Her knees feel like giving up once again, "You're the med school student at the Honno-ji monument!" Mai cries, shocked to the core, an avalanche of questions rising before she can stop them.
That sheepish smile widens, though, sighing softly. "Um, post-graduate in physics, not medicine. But I'm so glad you remember me," The relief in his face seems like the most genuine she's seen so far, while trapped in that too livid nightmare, "That makes things much easier."
Slowly yet surely, her face brightens. "So you ended up in the past too!" But if that guy was truly relieved, oh boy, he definitely has no idea how much weight he'd just pulled off her shoulders, suddenly feeling like hugging him for dear life.
I'm not really alone in here, thank the heavens!
The sight of his clothes and overall getup are a mystery, though. "Um, I'll say it's weird seeing you as a ninja,"
He snorts softly, understanding her confusion. "It's better if I start from the beginning. My name is Sasuke," He begins to explain what truly happened ever since they encountered in the future—or their present time, as he insists in remarking—while walking together through the woods, the whole recount making Mai's head spin.
Sitting down on a tree stump, she just hears him out. According to him, the sudden thunderstorm and that lightning bolt that'd shattered the Honno-ji stone monument was product of an unnatural event, which caused a warp between space and time and sent the two of them to the timeline they're currently living on.
"Or well, that's a very simplified and condensed version of my theory," Sasuke excuses himself for the possible vague summary, adjusting his glasses once in a while, "Given we both encountered the same wormhole, we appear to be in the same timeline. But despite having entered at the same time, I ended up arriving four years prior to you," A brief wince crosses his face.
Mai gapes at him, "Four years!?" She quickly closes her mouth, thoughts running wild, "Now that you say that, it explains a several lot," She points out, gesturing vaguely at his figure.
Sasuke nods, "However, in these years, I've learned that this period, the Sengoku, and Japan's civil war is quite different than the one we're familiar with." That addition makes her quirk a brow.
More different than how it is now? Is that for other reason than me saving Nobunaga? This is becoming a weird science fiction drama and I don't like it one bit!
She swallows her questions for a moment, allowing him to keep explaining. According to Sasuke and just like how it'd happened to Nobunaga and her, he has arrived at the date of Kenshin Uesugi's historical death instead. However, Sasuke's quick thinking and knowledge of modern medicine had ensured Kenshin's survival—leaving him, as well as Nobunaga in the current moment, also alive. But they weren't the only ones.
The marvelous creature crafted by the very gods, Shingen Takeda, was supposed to have died by the current time as well. But for some reason—in which Sasuke insisted he hasn't been involved with—he was still around when he shouldn't be.
"I can't believe it," Mai holds her chest, trying to process everything as best as she can. "The one single time I act up out of my interests at heart and just thinking in another person's survival, I screw that up. And now we… we changed the past?"
"Well, to a degree, yeah." At least Sasuke doesn't feel like lying to her face, regardless of how awful it must be for him to say it. "What I can assume from this is that we're in an alternate Sengoku period, not the one we know from school." She can tell by the look of his face that news can be either hopeful or absolutely devastating, but turns out, there's not really a way to know for the current moment. "Because of these fluctuations in space-time we're in one of most possibly many divergent timelines, one in which history will take a different course."
She feels her head spinning—time travel, alternate history, divergent timelines. It actually sounds like science fiction.
"As a matter of fact, I major in theoretical astrophysics at Kyoto University, specializing in wormholes and their potential for time travel." Sasuke goes on, a different glint on his eyes. This probably must be his ultimate dream, to some degree, then. "I'd conceived a method for predicting the conditions for patterns by which traversable wormholes manifest. That's why I was at the stone monument that day." He frowns a little, "To verify my method."
Well, if she'd previously thought the people in this time were definitely something out of this world, Mai truly has to reconsider that—she's having a conversation with a guy who can predict wormholes, and from her present time. Things just keep going crazier and crazier, it seems like.
"I've been looking for you here, though. Given how it happened, I expected you must have traveled back in time as I did." There's when he gets somewhat grim, "But… I hadn't conceived the possibility you'd arrive four years later."
Oh, dear. The passing comment makes her feel guilty—the guy has already spent four years completely alone in that crazy timeline, and she was already losing her mind for being around just some mere hours. "So… all things considered, this certainly doesn't look out to be a dream. Wow."
"I suppose you could say it's a dream for me," A sheepish smile clings to his face, confirming her past assumptions, "I get to see the famous people of the Sengoku era with my own eyes."
"Yeah, you're strangely chipper about this," Mai feels inclined to admit out in the open, sharing his smile regardless.
"Well, my parents were history buffs. I actually got my name from the legendary ninja who served Yukimura Sanada," There's a proud gleam in his eyes as he comments on it, as well as some obvious homesickness. "I've figured out to take his 'place' in this world as Sasuke Sarutobi. That would help to keep my historical impact low to some degree."
Mai nods in admission, "And were your parents well versed in martial arts, too?" She wouldn't be surprised if they were—that is still a skill worth learning about in their present time, after all, and even she's somewhat skilled in some. "Or is this ninja getup you've got something you picked up while you were here?"
"Oh, no, I studied that here. It seemed useful to pick up a marketable vocation." He shrugs it off, not giving it much importance. However, considering the guy went from astrophysicist to ninja, Mai can't help but blink at his frighteningly quick skills for adaptation.
Although she isn't really scared of her one closest thing of an ally in that world, so Mai shakes off her shock as fast as it comes. Besides, putting aside her natural surprise over that fact, she won't lie and not admit the guy is pretty much a handicap and quite resourceful, all things considered.
He outstretches a hand to help her haul to her feet, "Right now, I'm employed with that man you saw earlier…" His glasses glint once again just slightly, his face brightening with an idea, "You should come with me! I can assure you I'll find a way to return us both to the present time."
Despite being an odd one, Mai has no doubts he's her best shot for getting back home. And truth is, sticking with a guy who truly knows the situation she's in may increase her chances for survival to several degrees up. Yup, definitely my best card to play.
"Why, you bet I'm going—" Her reassurance dies fast on her lips as another voice rushes on through the woods, startling them both.
"Mai, where are you?"
She freezes in her spot. That one belongs to one of Nobunaga's men, that's for sure, but recognizing it doesn't stop her blood from running cold. Could it be Hideyoshi?
"Mai! Come out already!"
At the sound of approaching horses, Sasuke grows grim. But before Mai can come up with another word, in the blink of an eye he's gone and out of her sight, slipping into the shadows of the forest. No, Sasuke! Don't leave me alone now that I found you! What about our plan?
However, before she has any chance to follow him, two men on horseback are quicker to arrive and get to her. Indeed, one of them is Hideyoshi.
"I searched the whole forest for you," He deadpans, although putting up his best neutral smile, so Mai can't tell if he's upset or not.
Mai frowns, deep down not wishing to put up a fight, but it's not like she's in the mood to be sympathetic. "Well, I didn't ask you to, have I?" And to make it worse, he'd just driven off her only ticket home.
Hideyoshi gapes for a brief moment, "How insolent you can get?" He frowns back, staring at her as if not possibly believing her defiant manners, his horse quick to block the one possible way for her to run away, "Hiding from Lord Nobunaga for no reason whatsoever and—"
"Why, 'no reason'?" Mai can't really tell if Sasuke's still around, but best she can make of is buy herself some time. Besides, the guy already got on her nerves, "He asked me to conquer the world with him and clearly didn't look like he was going to take a no for an answer!"
"That is no way to—!"
However, her annoyance tones down several levels at the sound of genuine laughter, coming from the second man accompanying Hideyoshi. It's musical and warm but just so, exactly like… spring, too tempting to join in the mirth. That, and as well as turning it impossible for Mai not to turn her eyes to the source, briefly abandoning her desperate search for Sasuke.
And for some reason, her heart seems to do a dramatic double flip when she finds it.
"So… you're Mai? A stalwart lass, indeed," The first detail she notices in him are some incredible eyes—or best to say, eye in singular, an eyepatch sadly covering the other—gleaming in hues of sapphire blue, almost taking her breath away with its enrapturing beauty.
If he hasn't already with that heartwarming laughter, that is.
"I've no doubts you're the woman who defied Lord Nobunaga." Her face grows hot as she feels the way the man's single eye roams over her, heartbeat pounding on her ears. Regardless, Mai does her best to keep her composure.
"And you are? Someone else I'm supposed to recognize?" Her voice unconsciously shifts into flirty levels and she slaps herself inwardly.
Where did that come from? Oh well, at least I haven't put up on a pathetic show as I did with… what was his name, now?
But she can't keep going with that train of thought as the second most incredibly handsome man she's ever met reaches down for her. "I'd be terribly pleased if you did, but now's not the best time to talk..."
And just like that, he effortlessly—and so much as literally—sweeps her up her feet, placing her on his horse. Tucked snugly against his chest, Mai has the ultimate blessing of the first view of that charming, bossy smile plastered all over his face. For all intents and purposes, she can't possibly bring herself to move an inch or even breathe when he leans closer and into her personal space, bangs brushing her forehead and hot breath gracing her ear.
"Masamune Date," He whispers so seductively Mai feels about to pass out. "Remember it… Mai."
The way her name rolls on his lips, oh isn't he a gift from the very gods. She genuinely has no idea how she manages to stay up that horse but most definitely her brain goes into short-circuiting at the mere sound of it.
Right, he's the One-Eyed Dragon, then. She recalls the name from the magazine, but really, if she'd been swooning over the pictures of him, as a matter of fact, those didn't make justice in the slightest in comparison to the real deal.
Hideyoshi is, of course, the one to break her from that rapturing spell made by Masamune's smug smile. "Masamune is head of the noble Date clan of Oshu. He's also allied with Lord Nobunaga, so show some respect."
Why, if Hideyoshi is actually trying to impress me with those unnecessary bits of trivia, I've got news for him.
But with him as an odd third wheel, Mai doesn't feel like staying up on that horse anymore, suddenly finding the situation uncomfortable enough for her liking. "Well, thank you both for the introduction, but I find these manhandling manners quite a bit rude. Could I be put down now?"
"Settle down. You'll spook the horse." He brushes off her complaint, an arm snaking its way around her waist. She can't really blame Masamune for not sounding convincing enough, chuckling low a moment later; his mirth rumbling down her back and doing very funny things to her insides.
She has to clear her throat to regain her voice. "A-and don't I matter? I'm, uh, pretty spooked too." As a matter of fact, she's very much the opposite of it, but hell will rain upon them before she shows that to the already insufferable Hideyoshi.
His smirk widens, amused to the core, and there's a certain glint in that alluring eye of his that seems to catch up with something she doesn't. "Hmm, come to think of it, you do look a little spooked…" Whatever his odd reasoning is, it doesn't seem to stop him from urging his horse forward with a snap on the reins, startling Mai.
"Masamune…" Hideyoshi growls in warning, but doesn't seem to be following them right away. And thank the gods for that! "Just… don't lose her."
"Hah, as if!" The horse quickly breaks into a run after a second snap of the reins, "Hold on tight, Mai." She knows she should be protesting or insisting to some form to be put down, but with the mention of her name coming from Masamune, her brain just ends up lost for any words whatsoever.
The truth is, nothing in the world could have possibly prepared her for Masamune's insanely wild horse riding, prompting Mai to cling tightly to his armor for dear life. Her first choked cries only seem to make him spur his horse faster, his laughter resonating all around them, almost inviting her to join in the gleeful moment.
"That's okay, you won't fall off," As amusing as he may find the situation—judging by the mirth in his voice—Mai can hardly share his excitement as of then, too stressed for her own good and barely able to pry her fingers off his shoulder out of mere politeness. Luckily he doesn't complain about how she's been practically clutching him. "I think we've lost Hideyoshi as well. Isn't that what you wanted?"
That comment prompts her curiosity, sheepishly glancing past Masamune's shoulder, but barely peeking out. "Oh, thank heavens, he is…" She sighs in sheer relief, a lot of her tension thankfully slipping away, if unconsciously.
So he noticed that, huh. That realization makes Mai grow several degrees more comfortable around him, at least for the further moment. Besides, Masamune Date may at first seem quite cocky and a massive flirt—not to mention more than aware of his ravishingly handsome looks, but she wouldn't blame him for using that to his advantage. Either way, and for all intents and purposes, he definitely he doesn't strike her as mean or wicked like some other warlords she's met so far.
Predicting it's so far looking up to being a long ride, Mai opts out for giving him a vote of confidence, relaxing some more in his arms and tiredly resting her head in the crook of his neck, where he's not as heavily armored. For reasons beyond her, Masamune keeps chuckling low, apparently pleased with himself.
"So, let me guess," His constant amusement slowly gets into her, and Mai can't bring herself to complain about it, "Are you just hired to steal away damsels in distress for Nobunaga or is it you didn't have anything better to do?"
There's no doubt of it right then—he's definitely pleased with himself. "I'd say it's one of the best perks of the job, yeah," He says cockily, his air of self-assurance nearly dripping out of him, the warmth of his voice all the more helpful for her to relax. "However, that purring doesn't really sound like one from someone in distress…"
Mai snorts, "Don't tease me. I'm just tired, alright," She's willing to admit, giving up for any possible ideas of escaping his grasp and wiggling a little for better accommodation. If it's going to be as long of a ride as it looks like, then she may as well get somewhat comfortable. "I'm just coming along from certainly the worst night of my life, and considering where you're taking me, seems this nightmare isn't looking forward to ending anytime soon…"
"Well, if you ask me, I think it's going to be really fun instead," His snickering briefly tickles her ear, the arm snaked around her waist pulling her closer to his chest. Mai just relishes in his warmth, too exhausted to put up a fight. "But get some sleep now if you're truly tired. It is a long ride, after all…"
"And risk myself falling off your horse? Thanks, but no thanks," Although even when she says that, Mai can also hear her own voice growing heavy and groggy.
"Aaw, how could I possibly let that happen? You wound me, kitten," Brushing some locks of hair away from her face, Masamune leans down and closer, hot breath fanning her ear, "Luckily for you, I don't mind some scratches…"
Mai giggles and squirms a little, both for the tickling sensation and the ever so alluring tone of his voice. She can't really tell, but if Masamune's main goal was to get her all putty in his arms, then she hopes he'd consider that a success already.
And so, she finally complies, drawing a long sigh before dropping her eyes closed as they ride on full speed ahead through the night, with only the wind catching up with them.