Author's Note: There are certain fundamentals when it comes to anime. A true anime will always have a beach episode, a hot spring episode, and some sort of festival episode. It never ceases to amaze me to what extents some anime will go in order to accomplish these fundatmentals (the hot spring planet from Outlaw Star immediately leaps to mind). Anyway, when I wrote this I tried visiting the anime fundamentals that were missing from this series. I'm glad season four captured them too. They even had that one extra beach episode.
Chapter 11.
Saito looked at his grandfather trying to get the words to come out, but nothing was happening. His grandfather looked at his dumbstruck expression and chuckled mildly.
"Are you my grandson's master, Your Majesty?" The aged man asked Henrietta. It sounded no different to Saito, but Henrietta jumped as if she had understood every word. "Or you princess?"
"I... I am." Louise ventured.
"I see. Well, welcome to Japan all of you." The elder Hiraga greeted. "Though I wonder why this girl here seems to be Japanese..."
"Her... her great grandfather is from Japan." Saito managed. His grandfather for the first time seemed shocked.
"Really? Now that IS something." His grandfather said looking the girl over. "Was your great grandfather also a Gandalfr? What was his name?"
"No." Siesta answered slowly. "He was stranded on our world. His name was Sasaki..."
Gramps turned pale at this, looking visibly shaken. "Fate can be a strange master." He whispered to himself.
"How... How do you know about these things Gramps?" Saito asked.
His grandfather recovered his composure and smiled weakly. "I've been to your world son."
Saito's jaw was now hanging wide open. All the girls were likewise in shock. "Can you get us home?" Henrietta managed first.
"Sadly, no I can't." Gramps said resuming his drinking. "I might be able to show you were to start though."
"When did you come to our world?" Tabitha asked seriously.
"I've actually been to your world twice." Gramps said seriously. "Both times being long, long ago. Tell me son, did you ever wonder why out of all the people in Japan, you were the one who got summoned to be this girl's familiar?"
"I never thought about it much." Saito admitted.
"Well, there was a reason behind it." Grandpa Hiraga explained. "Our family have had different members serve as Gandalfr for centuries. It's not something we advertise though."
"But... how? Why us?" Saito begged.
"I'm afraid you would have had to have asked your grandmother those questions. She was the mage, not me." The elderly innkeeper said as he relaxed.
"Your... your grandmother was a noble?" Louise asked her dumbfounded familiar.
"Gallian." Gramps affirmed with a nod. "The key word there being 'was'. We fled your world nearly seventy years ago."
"That means that you... You're a Gandalfr too!" Saito accused his elder.
"At one time, yes. My rune faded after your grandmother passed away." His grandfather said sadly.
"You said you had been there twice..." Henrietta mentioned.
"Maybe I should just tell you from the beginning. When I was a boy, younger than even Saito actually, I was summoned to your world. I had no idea where I was or how to get home. Saito's grandmother was the one who summoned me. She was a member of the nobility in Gallia, and she summoned me the night her estate was attacked. She was desperate, alone, and scared. You see, back in those days Gallia, Tristain, and all the surrounding kingdoms were embroiled in rampant war. She never knew why her family was attacked, but I suspect it was because someone knew what ran through her bloodline. The night she summoned me, we fled from Gallia. At the time she didn't even know what she was. It wasn't until later that we found out she was a void mage."
"I am from Gallia, and a member of the nobility. It's possible that we might share a common ancestry Saito." Tabitha remarked.
"It's possible. Void magic runs in families. A long time ago, I think some of the powerful nobility tried to intermingle with void users. We'd heard that there was a family in Tristain that might have had the possibility of turning out a void mage, but they never had before. That must have been your family. There's a lot more to the history than that, but that's where you'd have to look into your grandmother's research." Grandfather explained.
"But why is your family, the one to provide the Gandalfr?" Louise asked.
"Well as I said, when we fled Gallia, Amelia and I knew nothing of all this. Amelia was nowhere near done with her magical studies and had only tried summoning me out of desperation, and I wasn't much help against an army. You see my power as a Gandalfr was called 'The Heart of God'. I was able to survive any injury or wound. And let me tell you, I was mortally wounded enough to have killed me countless times while helping her to escape. I became very leery of the word 'diversion'. Anyway we were eventually captured by elves while fleeing through their lands and they were more than willing to help remove a void user from the world. They carried us to a place called Shytarn, and helped Amelia open a gate that lead her to my world. Saito, when I was younger than you, I came here with your grandmother because my grandfather was the priest at the local temple and I didn't know where else to go. It was there that I found that there had been disappearances like mine from this village for centuries, and there were records of why. Your grandmother told me that our family, and the families that still live here in this village were descended from someone from the other world who was sent to this one through the gate to act as a guardian. That was when she decided to take up that charge and guard this place. It has some sort of tie to the other world like Shytarn does among the elves."
"So you think she might have left some record of how to open the gateway to our world and send us home?" Henrietta asked seriously.
"It is possible. Like I said, I don't understand magic very much at all. Saito's grandmother would lose me quickly whenever she would start going on about her research." Gramps mentioned.
"So when did you go back?" Saito asked.
"It was years later, and it was accidental. I was flying a mission for the military when my wing man and I were pulled into an eclipse. Your grandmother explained the details to me but I've never really understood what she meant, some really long words were involved though. Needless to say, having been there before, once I realized what was happening I signaled Sasaki-san to follow me back through and escape. I made it, but he didn't. All these years, I've wondered what became of him. But somehow, knowing he lived to have a family makes me feel better." Gramps said with a smile as he patted Siesta's hand.
"So you were the other pilot." Saito whispered.
"Yes, it was during the war of course. After the war I finished school and became a teacher and your grandmother took up the family's charge of protecting the area. It was amazing how much the small handful of gold coins she'd brought with her from Gallia managed to buy. We purchased the inn here and we lived happily together for years. When your mother left I didn't think you would ever be summoned though. All the others that were summoned over the centuries came from the village here." Grandfather explained. "As I said, all the families here have lived here since the time of the first guardian like the Hiraga family, and also the Sasaki family. Siesta child, you have distant relatives here. Your great grandfather wasn't an only child. He and I served together with the other boys from this village."
Everyone stared at Siesta as the news sank in to everyone. Siesta smiled as she looked at Saito. "I never dreamed I'd have such a strange heritage."
"Well, it matters little right now. That's all ancient history. There's apparently been more connections between our world and your own in the past. Amelia's notes will be able to tell you more." Grandfather said standing. "I've had a bit much to drink, so I think I'm going to go pass out for the night. You children enjoy yourselves in the springs tonight, and tomorrow I'll take you up to the temple."
Saito nodded dumbly as his grandfather unsteadily rose to wander off to his bed. Then a thin trickle of blood began to ooze from his nose as his eyes began to get bigger and bigger. The other girls were looking at him in concern as the blood began to flow more heavily and the young man slumped backwards and nearly fainted.
"Saito, what's wrong?" Louise cried, shaking his nearly unconscious form.
"Hot... Springs..." Saito gurgled before darkness claimed him.
"So... the bath... is outside?" Henrietta asked dubiously as she pulled the inn's robe a little tighter around her body.
"Don't worry, the inn is secluded so that no one can see. There's also a wall there so that no one can look in and spy on the women bathing." Saito reassured the girl as well as he could with a tissue stuffed up each nostril.
"Will you be bathing with us master?" Siesta asked hopefully.
"No, the baths are separated, except on mixed bathing day." Saito continued. "The pink flag there is the women's entrance, and the blue one here is the men's entrance. There's a wall inside that separates the two."
"You better not peek over the wall you dog." Louise warned.
"Don't worry mistress, I'll make sure he behaves." Siesta promised taking Saito's arm and heading toward the blue entrance.
Three sets of arms pulled the errant maid back toward the pink side. "We're not in Tristain anymore." Louise scolded.
"I'm outlawing that tradition when we get home." Henrietta added.
Saito headed into the men's changing area and got some fresh tissues. He'd bathed with Siesta before and it had taken all his reserve not to have sex with her in that little tub in her room. If she'd followed him in now, or any of the girls for that matter, he didn't think he'd be able to control himself. He blamed it on the kimonos. He hated to admit it, but he was definitely beginning to like the idea of coming home to a house full of women (who were now only wearing towels).
It took Saito several minutes to stop the bleeding, and get undressed for his bath. Finally, wearing nothing but a towel, the young swordsman stepped out into the cool night air and looked up at the stars. A girlish squeal brought Saito's attention back to his right where four young girls were standing in nothing but towels, shivering.
Saito's eyes went wide as he struggled for something to say. His lips were moving but he couldn't seem to get the words to come out right. There where the wall should have been was an empty space with a sign that said 'Mixed Bathing Day Today'.
"Saito you perverted dog! You knew all along didn't you!" Louise accused the young man.
"Can I wash you now master?" Siesta cried happily.
"Did you see anything?" Henrietta asked with a deep trembling blush while standing in such a way as to remedy the situation if he hadn't.
Tabitha merely shrugged. "It's not like he hasn't seen it before." She said as she tossed her towel aside and slipped into the warm water.
It was Louise's turn to be unable to speak as she stared at Tabitha aghast, and then looked over angrily at Saito whose eyes had followed the lithe girl all the way into the water.
As Saito caught a tub for bathing supplies upside the head from his irate master he thought he could faintly hear an old man chuckling somewhere in the inn. This was most likely just his imagination though since immediately after that he slipped into blissful unconsciousness.
A/N: Sorry. Got a nosebleed dreaming of hot spring episodes...