Okay so I didn't get this chapter up as soon as I thought I would, but oh well. Anyways, I have been trying to make my chapters a bit more longer than the past ones, but I guess it's kind of hard sometimes. But I hope you guys are enjoying my story even if the chapters aren't very long. Maybe they'll be longer once I get into the story more.
Anyways, thank you for reading and for your comments!
Disclaimer: I only own Kaitie!
"I have some spare time. How about I give you a lesson or two?" the newcomer said as he got off his horse and walked towards the group. The people who were surrounding them, who looked like they were soldiers, stepped out of this man's way. Musashi held up his swords defensively as he stared at this man.
"I'd ask you your name, but there is one person you could possibly be," Musashi said.
"If you're thinking Keiji Maeda, then you got that right!" said the man as he spun his spear over his head "So how about it? You gonna fight me?!" Keiji got into a battle ready stance "I heard there was a fight going on here so I came to check it out and you look like a good opponent." Musashi got into his stance as well.
"I don't have much time for this. There is a village under attack by bandits," he said "I'll make this quick."
Keiji laughed. "You must be pretty confident to think you can take me down easily!" he said. Keiji then charged at Musashi. He swung his spear which Musashi deflected with a sword. Musashi then swung at Keiji with both swords at the same time, but Keiji dodged it. They went at it for awhile, their weapons constantly hitting against each other, each of them dodging the others attack, and both of them showing that they would not be giving up anytime soon. Soon these two skilled warriors were caught in a deadlock.
"You got some skill on ya," Keiji said "But something's holding you back, isn't it?"
"Shut up!" Musashi snapped "Why does everyone have to analyze me!?"
"Don't sweat it. There'll be plenty of war to go around when you're ready," Keiji said, leaving Musashi to wonder what he could possibly mean by that. Keiji was starting to overpower Musashi in the deadlock. Because of his bigger size, it must have made him more stronger and also since Musashi had been doing so much fighting in only these past two days, it was starting to wear him down.
"I can't give up! I have to keep going!" he thought, trying to hold up against Keiji.
Kaitie and the villager watched the fight at the side. Kaitie's expression was filled with worry. She could tell Musashi was getting tired, but she wasn't sure how she could help him. She quickly thought of something. "It might make him angry at me again, but if I don't do something, then who knows what may happen," she thought "This fight has gone on a little too long. I have to stop this."
She took the backpack off her shoulders and threw it off to the side. With the bokkens in her hands she ran towards the two.
Just as Musashi thought he was going to loose his footing, suddenly someone shouted "Stop!" He felt that Keiji had stopped trying to push him back. He looked up and saw Keiji was looking over to the side. Musashi looked in the same direction that Keiji was and saw it was Kaitie.
"What do you think you're doing girly?" Keiji asked.
"You need to stop now! This fight has gone on too long! We need to help those villagers!" Kaitie said. She looked at Musashi and then looked up at Keiji. "Can't you see he's also getting tired! He was fighting a big battle yesterday and has been fighting pretty much all day today to stop the bandits!"
"Listen lady, can we just finish this fight?" Keiji asked. Kaitie put on a more serious expression and walked in between the two warriors and faced Keiji. Musashi took a few steps back, looking a little surprised.
"If you want to get to him, you need to get through me first!" Kaitie exclaimed. "What am I doing? Me against Keiji?! Even I think I'm being stupid! But hopefully he'll maybe back down. Hopefully…"
"Are you sure about that," Keiji questioned "I mean, come on. Do you really think you stand a chance against me?"
Kaitie just stood where she was, not moving at all. "Please back down. Please back down. Please back down. Please just don't fight anymore," she pleaded inside her head, not wanting to fight Keiji. She wasn't sure if she would even last five seconds against him. Even though on the inside she was getting all scared, she did her best to keep herself calm on the outside.
"Don't do this," Musashi said to Kaitie "Just stop. Now!" But Kaitie did not move. Keiji sighed.
"Alright then, but you asked for it," Keiji said "If you really wanna face me. Just don't go crying on us if you get hurt."
"Oh no! He's really going to fight me!" Kaitie thought, thinking about how dumb of a decision that was.
Keiji raised his spear over his head and started to bring it down on Kaitie. "No!" Musashi yelled, rushing over to save Kaitie. But then suddenly, she spun out of the way of the attack. Musashi stopped where he was and stared. She had just dodged that attack so perfectly and quickly. Even Keiji looked a bit surprised. Kaitie just looked freaked out.
"Nice dodge, but can you keep it up?" he asked. He swung his spear lower, aiming to hit her in the side. Kaitie dodged it by ducking, squatting low to the ground. Keiji swung the spear back, aiming low to where she was. Kaitie avoided it by jumping up, very high. She happened to turn sideways while jumping and did a split while in the air, almost kicking Keiji in the face.
"Whoa!" Keiji exclaimed, moving back to avoid the kick. Kaitie landed back on the ground lightly on her feet and without making a sound. But she still wore that same scared expression on her face.
"Does she even notice what she's doing?!" Musashi thought, staring in amazement and disbelief "She's dodging his attacks so quickly and almost kicked him right in the face! Where did this come from?! I thought she said she didn't know how to fight!"
"Okay… so you're better than I thought you were," Keiji said. Kaitie's expression turned from fear to confusion. "Huh?" she questioned. Maybe she really didn't notice what she was doing…
But that confused look turned back to fear when she saw Keiji swing his spear again at her. This time she dropped the bokkens, bent backwards, and had her arms raised out. She kept bending back until she bent so far that her hands almost touched the ground while her feet were still on the ground too. Soon she kicked up her legs, planted her hands on the ground, and flipped. She happened to kick Keiji's wrist in the process of her flip and that made Keiji drop his weapon. Kaitie landed on her feet and when she looked at what happened, her eyes went wide as if she just realized what she did.
Musashi's eyes were wide now too. Probably wider than Kaitie's. He could just not believe this. Was there something that she had been hiding from him? Was she actually tougher than she seems? What sort of martial arts was this?
"Heh… not bad I guess," Keiji said while rubbing his wrist. He stood up and picked up his weapon "Well I guess I shouldn't be wasting your time. You said you need to take care of some bandits." He turned to Musashi. "Hey what was your name again, kid?"
"Musashi Miyamoto," he answered.
"Okay good. I'll come find you some other day when you're not tired or fighting some bandits and then we'll finish our fight," Keiji said. He then looked at Kaitie. "Don't think this means you won," he said and then started to walk away. He got on his horse. "But maybe I wouldn't mind having another fight against you too," he finished before turning his horse and riding off.
The two stood there for a moment. Kaitie looked at Musashi just to find out he was staring right at her. She blushed a little bit. "Is… is something wrong?" she asked "Is he maybe mad at me for interfering?"
"What was that!?!" Musashi exclaimed "I thought you said you didn't know how to fight! But you just took on Keiji Maeda! You were dodging his attacks so skillfully and you even kicked his weapon away! When did you learn that!"
Kaitie thought for a moment. Then she probably just realized all the stuff she had just done. "Oh! That must have been some dance moves I just did!" she said.
Musashi stared. "Uh…. Dance moves…?" he asked.
"Uh-huh," Kaitie replied, nodding her head "I've studied dance since I was really young and those must have been some of the leaps and turns and stuff I've learned over the years."
Musashi could not believe this. He was too shocked to comment on this. But then he realized that they should save this conversation for another time. They needed to head out and finish off all the bandits. "Come on," he said "We need to go." He started running with Kaitie picking up the bokkens and following. The villager man had disappeared awhile ago while the fighting was going on. As they were running, Musashi looked over at Kaitie.
"Hey, I…. I'm sorry for the way I had acted earlier," he apologized "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Kaitie looked up at him. A small smile came to her face.
"It's okay," she replied "Don't worry about it." Musashi nodded and the two continued to the west village.
Soon they got there, but strange to them it was quiet. It looked like no bandits had been there at all. The two walked around cautiously. All of a sudden they were surrounded. It seemed that the bandits had decided to lay a trap for them.
"We heard about some guy going around and killing our men and trying to save the villages," one of the bandits said.
"Yeah and we heard he was pretty tough," another said "But how tough are you now that we have you surrounded?"
"Hey! He's got a girl with him!" a third bandit said "After we take care of this guy, let's take his girl with us!"
"Yeah! We'll take you out first and then we finally get to raid this village!" another yelled.
Kaitie was frightened at the thought that the bandits wanted to take her hostage. Musashi saw this and turn towards her.
"Don't worry. They're just all talk," he said "They're not really that tough at all. I'll make sure they don't take you."
Kaitie blushed. "He's really trying to protect me…," she thought. But her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden charge of the bandits. Soon Musashi was fighting off the bandits that came his way. He would dodge and block their weak attacks easily and then cut them down with his swords with such skill. Kaitie suddenly saw that the bandits had surrounded her.
"Come with us girly," one said.
"Yeah, come with us and no one gets hurt," another said "Well… except maybe your friend over there. We'll make sure he's out first." All the bandits around her had this grin on their faces as they inched closer to Kaitie. Kaitie looked around, fear in her eyes as she tried to find a way out of this. Suddenly one of them grabbed her on the wrist. When she felt that hand grab her, she remembered her self defense class at school. She used one of the wrist releases that she had learned to get out of the man's grip. But she didn't really know what to do after that, so she just whacked the guy in the face with one of the bokkens. The bandit fell to the ground, holding onto his face in pain.
"I… I guess that worked..," she thought.
"Fine. You don't want to come with us, then pay the price," one bandit said. The bandits started to come at her. She dodged out of the way of their attacks just like she did in the match with Keiji. She spun out of the way when one man jabbed his spear in her direction. She jumped up and did her split in the air, this time actually kicking two men right under the chin and sending them falling backwards. She even spun on one foot while holding her other leg out to the side, kicking some more bandits out of the way.
"Hey, this really works pretty well!" she thought, a small smile creeping slowly on her face. Musashi could see her from where he was fighting and he was pretty impressed. Then Kaitie would start trying to hit the bandits with her bokkens and well….. let's say that did not impress him.
"Her attacks with the bokkens are so sloppy!" he thought "She's just whacking the guys with them! It may work with some lowly bandits, but in real fights that will never work…"
He just let out a small sigh and went back to his fight. Soon he had defeated most of the bandits that he was up against.
"Aah! No stop! Let me go!" he heard Kaitie shouting suddenly. Musashi turned and saw that she had been knocked down to the ground and the bandits were surrounding her and grabbing her.
Musashi quickly ran to help her. He cut down the bandits trying to prevent him from reaching her. When he finally made it over to where she was, he then ran his sword through one of the bandits grabbing Kaitie's arm and did the same to the one grabbing the other. He stood in front of her and faced the bandits that were still there. He glanced over his shoulder at Kaitie, who was still on the ground.
"You okay?" he asked. Kaitie just nodded, looking a little frightened. "Just wait here. I'll take care of the rest of them." After saying that he left to fight the rest of the bandits. Kaitie got up from the ground and stood there, watching him fight. She felt bad that she always got in trouble and Musashi would have to save her. It made her feel weak and helpless. She also felt she might be bothering him and just getting in his way.
As she thought about these things, she suddenly saw that Musashi had taken care of the rest of the bandits that had been left. He stood in one spot for a moment, then he looked over at Kaitie. All of a sudden he dropped his swords and then he fell onto his hands and knees.
"Musashi!" Kaitie called as she ran to him. She knelt down beside him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah… I'm fine..," Musashi replied. Kaitie could see he was worn out from all the fighting he had done. So much fighting in only two days, she could see why he was so exhausted. Musashi got off his hands and knees and was now just sitting on the ground. "I just… need a little break is all…," he said, trying to catch his breath. Kaitie felt really bad now.
After awhile, it seemed Musashi was starting to look better. "I think we should get going now," he said while picking up his swords, putting them in his sheaths, and getting up. But his body was still a little shaky from his exhaustion and almost fell over again.
"Here, let me help," Kaitie said. She took a hold of one of his arms and put it around her shoulders so she could help him up and keep him standing. "We should find a place for you to rest," she said as she started walking and supporting Musashi as he limped along beside her.
"Thanks…," Musashi said. Kaitie smiled a bit and nodded in reply. The two walked along in silence for a moment.
"I'm really sorry that I couldn't be of any help since I can't fight and stuff. I guess I just got in the way and made it more work for you," Kaitie apologized suddenly. Musashi looked at her.
"You know… you actually did help me out a bit," Musashi said "You stopped the fight with Keiji when it went on for too long. You saw that I was getting tired from all this fighting and realized that we still needed to take care of the bandits still here. If you had not been there, I would have just kept fighting and who knows what may have happened. And look, you're helping me right now since it seems I'm too exhausted to even walk by myself ." He paused for a moment.
"So there's no need to be sorry," Musashi continued "Also, yes, there is a lot of stuff you need to work on in your fighting techniques, but… I think you did a good job out there for a first timer. I was impressed that you made dance techniques into fighting ones. Although I really thought that was some form of martial arts when you first did that. That does not look like any kind of dancing I've ever seen."
Kaitie blushed a little bit, feeling a little embarrassed. "Yeah… Dancing in the future is very different," she said "Some forms of dancing you do big jumps or turns or even flips like the ones I did today. I was kind of surprised myself at what I was doing."
Musashi nodded. "That was pretty impressive, but your way of handling the sword needs improvement," he said. Kaitie looked very embarrassed now. Musashi noticed this. "Don't worry about it. It's your first time and you just need practice," he said. Kaitie nodded, some of the embarrassment fading away.
"I think though… I should be the one to apologize," Musashi said.
"What do you mean?" Kaitie asked.
"I know I already apologized earlier, but I feel I should again and also explain why I acted the way I did," Musashi said "I should not have taken my anger out on you."
"Anger?" Kaitie asked. Musashi nodded.
"Yeah," he continued "The bandits decided to try and trap me while they went to pillage all the villagers. It made me angry that they were killing innocent people. That they were just using their blades to kill those who were weaker than them." Musashi's expression suddenly looked more gloomy.
"But now that I think about this…," he said "Yeah, the village has been saved, but…. but all I did was also killing a bunch of guys that were weaker than me. How does that make me any different from those lowly bandits?" He let out a sigh.
"There just has to be a better way than this! There has to!" Musashi finished. Kaitie looked at him for awhile. Soon she spoke.
"How can you compare yourself to a bandit like that?" she questioned.
"I just told you how," he said "All I did-" He was interrupted by Kaitie, who stopped walking and was now looking at him with a very serious expression on her face.
"You are not like those bandits! I say that because what you were fighting for was different than what they were fighting for!" Kaitie said "They were fighting only to hurt others! They were fighting to kill innocent villagers and steal from them! But you were fighting to save those innocent people who were being attacked by those stronger than them! So what if the bandits were weaker than you! They were stronger than the villagers and using their strength to harm the weak! You used yours to protect them!"
Musashi stared at her with a surprised look on his face. He didn't know what to say. He looked off to the side, pondering over what she said. Kaitie's expression softened. She then continued to walk, still supporting Musashi up. They walked in silence again. She glanced at Musashi. He seemed confused or troubled now. Kaitie got worried.
"Is he okay?" she thought "Did I go a little overboard just a moment ago? But it's true. He was just trying to protect the village. He was using his strength to protect the innocent while the bandits were just trying to hurt them. But maybe I sounded a little too harsh when I said it. I mean, I was almost yelling at him."
Suddenly Musashi stopped. Kaitie looked at him.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"I think I can walk by myself now," Musashi said "Thank you for your help." He still had some of that troubled look on his face. Kaitie took his arm off her shoulder and stepped back. Musashi did not stagger or fall this time so indeed he was well enough now to walk without help.
"I'm sorry if I was almost yelling at you a moment ago…," Kaitie apologized. Musashi looked at her, not sure what to say. Before he could think of something to say, suddenly he heard someone coming towards them.
"You did it! You defeated the bandits!" It was the villager who had come to them for help and lead Kaitie to the village. He bowed low on the ground to them. "I thank you very much! The bandits are all gone and our villages have been saved thanks to you!"
Musashi was silent for a moment, but then he spoke. "I'm glad we could help," he replied.
The man stood up and walked to them. "Are you two traveling around?" he asked. Musashi nodded. "Well do you need somewhere to stay and rest?" the man asked "If you like you may stay at my home for awhile. I would be honored to have you as my guests. I want to repay you for helping us."
"Well I guess we will need a place to stay for the night," Musashi said "Is it really okay with you?"
Yes, yes!" the man said happily "I would be happy to have you stay!"
Kaitie looked up at him. "You do need to rest after all that you've been through, Musashi," she said. Musashi looked at Kaitie and nodded.
"All right," he said to the villager "Thank you."
"Please follow me," the man said. The three than began to walk.
"So you're name is Musashi the lady said? Well Musashi-san it's an honor to meet you. I am Takumi," the man said. He turned to Kaitie. "And what was your name again, young lady?"
"Kaitie," she answered. Takumi had a bit of a confused look after she said her name, but then quickly stopped and put the smile back on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well," he said. Kaitie nodded and smiled.
"It's nice to meet you too," she replied. All of a sudden she stopped.
"Is something wrong?" Takumi asked.
"Oh no! I just remembered that I left those bokkens back over there! I dropped them when I fell and accidentally left them!" she said. Then her eyes widened. "Oh no! I left my backpack too! I have to get it quickly!" she exclaimed and started to run back.
"Wait! Kaitie!" Musashi called, but she was already running off. The two men had to follow after her.
Kaitie ran to where she left the bokkens first and picked them up. Then she ran to the place where she remembered leaving her backpack. When she got there, she saw no backpack. She dropped the bokkens out of shock.
"NOOOOO!!!!!" she cried "THEY TOOK MY BACKPACK!!!!" There were only some things that had been taken out and were just lying on the ground such as her phone, iPod, camera, a few pencils, and some pieces of paper.
Kaitie let out a loud and frustrated groan. "Kaitie! What's wrong?" Musashi asked as he and Takumi finally caught up with her.
"Musashiiii! They took my backpack!" Kaitie whined "Argh! I have homework that I have to do in there! Plus I have to study for that test, but now all my books are gone! Oh no! I will have to pay a fine because I lost those books! I have to pay for all of them! Aaw man! Why me!?" While Kaitie was freaking out about homework and books, Musashi and Takumi exchanged confused glances.
Kaitie sighed and picked up her stuff that was left on the ground. "I wonder why they took out this stuff and took the books even though they're written in a different language," she muttered. She thought for a moment as she picked up the last object that belonged to her. "Maybe since they had no clue what these things were or how to use them they saw them as useless and threw them out," she said.
"What is she talking about and what are those things she's picking up?" Takumi asked Musashi.
"Oh, uh…. don't worry about it," Musashi said "And those are just things that belong to her." Musashi wasn't sure if he should be telling Takumi where Kaitie was really from. He had a bad feeling about what could possibly happen if he told anyone she was from the future. He felt more safe just keeping it a secret for now.
Kaitie came back to them carrying her stuff. Musashi took out the small bag he had been using to hold the rice balls earlier that day.
"Here, you can use this to hold your stuff if you want," he offered. Kaitie took the bag from him.
"Thank you," she said as she put her stuff into the bag and tied the top close. She sighed as she then picked up the bokkens from the ground.
"I'm very sorry that you had you're uh… what is it called? Oh well, I'm sorry you had something of your's stolen," Takumi said.
"It's okay," Kaitie replied "Don't worry about it. I guess I should have been more responsible and not have forgotten it."
"Well, I think we should get going now," Takumi said "You two must be very tired now and you need rest." So Musashi and Kaitie followed Takumi to his home. Takumi happened to be the head of the western village and when they had returned to the village, there were happy villagers there to greet them. They bowed in thanks to the one who helped save their village. Soon they were at Takumi's home.
"Here is where you can stay," he said showing them their room "I'm sorry, but I only have one extra room to spare. Are you two fine with sharing one?"
Both of them were silent. Kaitie looked in the room and saw there was just one futon so she started blushing, like she usually did. Musashi just said nothing, but probably feeling just as embarrassed as Kaitie. Takumi saw this and let out a bit of a laugh.
"Don't worry. I have an extra futon one of you can use to sleep on. I'll go get it," he said as he walked away "Make yourself comfortable though while you wait for me to return."
Soon he was gone. Musashi and Kaitie were to embarrassed to look at each other for the moment and they stood there looking the other way in silence. Soon Musashi decided to head into the room. Kaitie stayed outside the room for a moment and then followed. Musashi had set his swords down, leaning them against the wall. He then sat himself down on the floor, leaning against the wall. Kaitie sat on the opposite side of the room and set the bokkens beside her. And awkward silence between the two…
After awhile Takumi came back with the extra futon and blankets. He got it all set up on the other side of the room where Kaitie sat. Once it was all set up, Kaitie claimed it by tossing her little bag of stuff onto it and then sitting on it. It seemed Musashi had already claimed the other one. He was sitting on it, looking as though he were deep in thought. Kaitie wondered what it could be that might be bothering him.
"If you two are hungry, my wife is preparing food," Takumi said "I will let you know when it's ready." Musashi looked up at Takumi and nodded. "Alright. Thanks," he said and then went back to his thoughts. Takumi walked out and closed the door behind him.
Right when Takumi left, Musashi let out a sigh as he laid back on his futon. He closed his eyes and folded his hands under his head. Kaitie looked over in his direction for a moment and then went digging in her bag. Pulling out her iPod, she put the headphones on and choose a song. Listening to her music always relaxed her. She laid on her stomach, resting her head on her arms.
Musashi was resting, but not exactly asleep. His thoughts prevented him from sleeping. His mind ran through all the events that happened today. He remembered earlier today, before the fight with the bandits, when he had been sitting under the tree talking with Kaitie. At that moment when he had gotten embarrassed for some reason for laughing. He wondered why it was he got that way.
"Maybe it was because I'm not used to having such a friendly and casual conversation with someone. Have I been alone for so long that I don't really know what it's like?" he thought.
He opened his eyes and looked over at Kaitie. She had her eyes closed too so she didn't notice him looking. He saw that she also had those strange things on her ears and he could hear some noise coming from them. He remembered it was that thing she said plays music. Odd music he thought it was. He took a closer look at her.
"She looks pretty young. She looks like she may be only a year younger than me at the most. If that's true…," he thought. He turned his head and was now staring at the ceiling.
"That reminds me… of when I left my village and went out on my own. It wasn't long after I had turned 16. It's been over a year now since then…" He thought about the past year he's been traveling all alone. With no one around him. He thought to his younger days. He remembered not having too many close friends. Was he just too used to being alone? Suddenly another thought came into his head.
"I wonder… if the reason I had been embarrassed from laughing was because… I was talking to a girl?"
As soon as he thought that, he quickly shook his head and turned his face towards the wall to the side of him. He could feel his face turning a tiny bit red.
"That's stupid! Why would that ever be the reason? So what if she's a girl! That doesn't matter!" he thought, feeling foolish that he even thought of something like that. Although he couldn't help but think of how that might be one of the reasons. He had never really talked to a girl before. He never exactly thought he would be the type of guy who girls would take notice of or that he would the type that would be interested in things such as having a relationship someday. So he would never really think about that stuff.
"I'm just not used to having someone around is all…" he thought, closing his eyes and trying push those other thoughts out of his head.
Back to Kaitie's side of the room, she was still listening to her music with her eyes closed. She was still pretty upset about losing her backpack.
"What if I suddenly make it back home and I still don't have my backpack? Man, I'm gonna be in big trouble. This stinks!" She thought about the stuff she still had with her. Suddenly she remembered something. She went digging through her bag and pulled out her camera.
"Oh, I hope it's not broken or anything," she thought while turning it on "If I lost those pictures for my class project, the others in my group working on the project with me will be so angry with me!"
Luckily the camera turned on alright and she went to where the pictures were stored. The first picture it showed was the one she took of Musashi, when he looked confused. She remembered how he had been laughing, but then he seemed to suddenly get really embarrassed. She felt a little bad that she embarrassed him like that and her face turned a bit red from feeling guilty. She thought maybe she should delete the picture so it wouldn't embarrass him any more. While she thought about it, she looked through her pictures to make sure the photos for her project for one of her classes were still there. Fortunately they were.
Musashi opened one eye, hearing the strange sounds of the camera. He closed it again, turned his head towards Kaitie, and opened his both his eyes. "Hey…," he said. But he got no answer from her. "Ahem… Hello?" he tried again. Could she even hear him? He raised an eyebrow in confusion. She was looking at that thing that she said made pictures. Finally he just reached out his hand towards her and waved it at her. That got her attention because she jumped a little, being surprised by the hand that was suddenly close to her.
"Uh… w-were you trying to get my attention?" she asked getting a nod of the head from Musashi in response "Oh… sorry about that. I didn't really hear you." She paused her music and pulled off the headphones. She then turned off the camera, tucking it away in the bag before turning her attention back to Musashi.
"I was just thinking that maybe you need to be more careful with that stuff you have. You know, be careful if you have for example that thing with the music out. If someone sees it, they won't know what it is and probably will start asking all these questions and then who knows what would happen." he said. "I'm just saying to be careful. I just think it would be better to leave it a secret about where you came from for now, just to be safe."
Kaitie nodded her head, understanding what he was saying.
"Also," he continued "I was thinking… maybe you need to come up with a fake name, you know, one that sounds more Japanese."
"Why a fake name?" Kaitie asked.
"Another way just to be on the safe side," he answered as he sat up. "Obviously your name does not even sound like our kinds of names, so people may become suspicious if you tell them your real name. Who knows how people would react to find out you are not even from our land or even if they find out you are not even of this time."
Kaitie thought about that for a moment. Maybe he was right. It sounded like a good idea. Kaitie nodded her head in approval of his plan and right away she sat up and started to think of a new name. After a moment, she started to look a little troubled by something.
"What's wrong?" Musashi asked.
"Um… can you help me out with this?" she asked "I… don't know what I should do for a name." She had a small embarrassed smile on her face. Musashi crossed his arms as he started to think.
The two thought for a moment and discussed some possible names for Kaitie. They finally came up with the name Katsumi. They also decided to give her a fake family name too, just in case. They decided on Nakamura.
"So now I have to call myself Katsumi Nakamura instead of Kaitie Livingston," she thought "I guess I'll have to get used to my new name then."
"Will that be easy for you to remember?" Musashi asked. Kaitie snapped out of her thoughts and nodded her head.
"I think I should be able to remember it. Thanks for helping me." she said. She smiled at him. Musashi sat there for a moment, but then he gave just a tiny smile back.
"No problem," he replied.
"Maybe I should write this down just in case," Kaitie said as she looked through her small bag and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. She quickly wrote it down. Then she had a thought.
"Hey Musashi," she said "How would you write that in Japanese?"
"Huh?" Musashi questioned, looking confused. "Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. You probably can't read Japanese can you? It's that other language you read. Alright I'll show you. That may be a good idea to know how to write your own name."
Little did the two know that Takumi had been standing outside the room by the door. He had happened to be walking by the room when he had heard the two talking and what he heard made him wonder. He had stayed there and heard everything they said. Soon he had enough of this eavesdropping and walked away from the door.
"So she is a foreigner?" he thought as he walked, surprised at this new information "And what did he mean by when he said she was not of this time…?"
"That girl….," Takumi muttered "I had a feeling… I thought there was something different about her.…"
So I guess I kind of made this chapter a little bit longer. Sorry about the delay on the chapter. I either got busy, forgot, or didn't have much motivation. ^^;
So about the part with Musashi thinking about when he left his village, I remember doing some research about the real Musashi and finding that they say he was either 16 or 17 during the battle of Sekigahara and that he left his village at probably 15, but some say 16. For the story I decided to have Musashi be 17, only a year older than Kaitie, and have him say that he left his village not too long after turning 16. And about some of the random things about his past, like not having many close friends or not talking to girls, I just pretty much made that stuff up for this fan fiction.
Now I'm not really sure what I should do for most of the next chapter. I don't really have many good ideas. So I apologize ahead of time if the next chapter takes awhile again. I'm trying to think of some ideas, but I'm not sure how long it will take me to think of a good one for the next chapter. Also I'm trying to thinks of ways to make this story not progress too fast, maybe by adding some smaller plots or stories in between the main plots of the story or something. I don't want it to progress too slowly either.
But anyway, please review and thanks for reading! ^_^