"Well come on then," I said, climbing to my feet. "We're not getting any younger."
"Shouldn't we be a little more prepared if we're going to go running off into places you've never been before?" Isana asked.
"I have my sword, what else do we need?" I asked.
"There you go again, thinking like a Soul Reaper," the Mountain Spirit said. "You're mortal now, so your body will feel extremes of heat and cold. Plus, you'll get hungry. You'll need food and different clothes because some of the Realms you will be visiting will be very hot and others will be very very cold. You'll also need soap and things to wash with, unless you want your enemies to smell you coming."
I scowled in irritation. I was not in the mood to be weighed down by carrying a buncha crap while I was trying to get somewhere and I said so, eager to just get on the trail already.
"Fortunately, I have a solution for that," the spirit said.
He reached for the satchel that Isana had bought at the store down the mountain.
"Ah good, this was made purely from materials that were grown here in my lands. I can work with this."
He muttered some arcane incantation that I didn't catch and a whirlwind of green energy swirled up around him, centering on the bag a few minutes later, he was done.
"There," he said, sounding satisfied. "This will hold anything you can fit inside the opening without getting any bigger or heavier, you should be able to carry your supplies easily with that."
"Oh, thank you very much," Isana said.
I just looked suspiciously at him. He sure was doing us an awful lot of favors without asking for anything other than for us to act as a delivery service. I didn't like it.
"I guess we'll have to go back down to that little town at the foot of the mountain and get whatever we're gonna need for the trip there," I said in resignation.
"Here," I said kneeling down with my back to her. "Get on."
"I can walk," she said defensively.
"Not fast enough," I replied gruffly, still a little mad at her for binding me up despite understanding why she did it. "I can get us there faster."
She debated for a moment then reluctantly let me carry her piggyback. I stepped out of the cave and flashed down to the edge of the town at the base of the mountain in three movements.
"whoah!" she exclaimed as she found herself standing next to the road with the town in sight after only a few short moments.
I just handed her all the money I still had left from beating those low-rank gangsters up, she was a woman after all and shopping was their baliwick (I'd seen for myself the way Matsumoto could blow through her paycheck in a single afternoon, Isana didn't look the sort to spend money on useless crap though), it was the most sensible thing to do. She was the one who would know how much things would cost and if we were getting cheated or not.
"Get whatever you think we'll need for the trip," I said. "I don't know much about your world, so you'd know better than me what a mortal body needs to keep going. Just make sure ya get a lot of food, I don't wanna waste all my time hunting and foraging when I should be tracking down that Shadow and finding a way to unbind me from this body."
"Um, okay," she said looking surprised and pleased.
I found a nearby bench to loiter around on and waited while she went into a nearby collection of stores. I kept an eye out for trouble but in a place this small and sleepy there wasn't much trouble to be found. I wished I could do some more practice forms, but I was wary of attracting an audience. People were already eying me suspiciously as they walked by, and this was me without my tatoos. I wondered idly what they'd all think of me is they could see my Soul Reaper form with its knotwork of tatoos all down my face and neck and body.
"Or at least they used to be,: I thought to myself.
Since I had unblocked my chakra and removed the bindings that Zabimaru had placed on me I wondered if my mandatory tatoos would still be there on my true form, or if 'd have to have them inked onto me for real this time. Minus maybe the ones on my foehead to bind my brow chakra. It was nice to be distinctive but lets not get crazy with it.
It seemed like forever later that she finally came out of the strip mall with her arms loaded down with stuff, bags and boxes and packages. Geeze, how much stuff did she think we were gonna need?
"I got you some new clothes!" she announced, extending a wrapped package my way. "Now go change out of those, people think you're a gangster and that you're going to mug them."
I shot her a wry look for her commentary on my appearance and obediently found a nearby place with the door marked men on it, changing in one of the stalls. I'd sort of gotten accustomed to the practice of putting new coverings on my gigai, though Ichigo still gave me crap about the clothes that I had on my original gigai, something about them being dated from the Seventies... but what did he expect? I had my first mission in the Seventies and that was what they wore back then. I saw no need to waste money on updating my old gigai or its clothes when both of them worked just fine. I had to admit that Isana was a good judge of sizes because the clothes she picked out for my new body didn't strain across the shoulders, like most of the clothes here seemed to. The clothes she'd picked out were simple enough, plain dark blue jeans in a cut that was comfortable to move around in and an ordinary black shirt with no sleeves. It was a little strange looking at myself in a mirror and not seeing my tattoos on my forehead and my hair shaved up into two high, pointed arches to accommodate the markings. I hadn't looked this ordinary since I'd been in Soul Reaper Academy.
When I got back out Isana was sorting through her packages, opening boxes and removing contents. I was amazed, and a little worried, over how much she had managed to aqquire that wasn't food.
"I have four more outfits for you so you have a change of clothes, plus I got these on sale-"
She held up two very thick knee-length parkas with fake fur-trimmed hoods on them.
"Just in case we hit some-place cold. And I figured that we might be staying out in the open, so I got this-"
Some medium-sized tube-shaped bag with a picture on it.
"...To sleep in, and this camp stove to cook on, plus utensils and camp cook gear and tarps to keep the rain off and hatchets and stools. And i got a lot of food because they were having a sale..."
Well that was a relief.
And took a while to unpack all the stuff she'd bought and tell me about it. She seemed pretty pleased with herself though I didn;t know what half of it was supposed to do so I just nodded and looked enthusiastic. She pushed it all into that bag of hers and we were both taken aback by how it didn't seem to change size or shape much at all. Well, it did get a little bigger and that suggested that it had a maximum capacity but it seemed to be well enough for us.
"Okay, let's go now," I said impatiently. She got to her feet, secured her bag and nodded at me. I flashed us both back up the mountain where the mountain spirit was waiting for us.
"We're ready," she said as I set her on her feet.
"are you sure you wanna do this?" I asked her even as the Mountain Spirit began to chant the incantation that would open a Portal between worlds.
"I'm sure," she said firmly. "Whatever it takes, I'm going to find my son. I won't rest until he's safe in my arms again."
Given what had happened in her previous life, I guessed I could see that. Alright then, she wasn't going to be talked out of it and I had already given her my word I'd help her as much as I could. It looked like we were in this then.
"The portal opens," he said, with a final shake of his sistrum.
We exchanged a long speaking look, and walked side by side into the darkness.
Okay, last update before my sisters and I head out to Akon (the anime convention in Dallas). I look forward to it every year and this year I'm looking even more forward to it because we're taking my five year old sister to her first con and get this, since we raised her on Sailor Moon (she loves Sailor Moon) we're all cosplaying this year as the Sailor Scouts! Kyaa! She's so cute, in her little Sailor Rini costume! Kyaa! So, I shall be having fun there, I hope you all enjoyed this small chapter (set up and transition before the real journey gets started) and I'll see you all in a week.