Chapter 5

When I awoke again, we were moving. My eyes were still closed, as I was only half awake, but I did register multiple things. Like I already mentioned: We were moving. I also heard people around me talking. I couldn’t make out any sounds though. But I did know that they were talking, so that's not bad.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. With me in the carriage were 3 other people. My view was still kind of blurry, though it quickly became sharper. I yawn a bit and, as this yawn leaves my mouth, I have fully returned to reality. I can clearly hear and can clearly see again. However, my mind was still a bit foggy.

I scanned the people who were with me: There was the girl with the blue jacket, the mature woman who made me think about my mother when I looked at her and some guy wearing a checkered headband. His hair was cut so short that you can barely see his hair and he was wearing some sort of red tank top with a weird design featuring two blades and a dragon.

“Ah, he’s awake.” said that same guy. He was around my age, I guess.

“How are you feeling?” The girl with the blue jacket moved her hand quickly in front of my eyes. I could easily follow its movements, but answering her… didn’t really appear as an option.

“He’s probably still exhausted. Can’t blame him though. Must’ve been terrible.”

“Well, he did survive the Poem of Death though. That’s not something you see often.” The words of the tank top guy seemed to imply that they knew more about the events that have unfolded in my village… I’ve got to ask them about it once I can actually think clearly again.

“You don’t see the poem often either. Was your first time, right?” The woman asked the other two. Didn’t the jacket-girl previously say something about some sort of academy? Was this woman their teacher or something? She seemed way too old to be anything but that.

“Well, I only saw that Ushitora… Luckily! Could’ve been way worse.”

The tank top guy grinned and rubbed his nose a bit.

“Well, I did see more! Together with Hibiki I found that village… It wasn’t pretty. Destroyed bodies everywhere, a ton of low ranking Yokai roaming around… There even were some A-Ranks nearby, but we didn’t attack them unlike a certain someone…”

“Hey, what else was I supposed to do?! I can’t let the poor guy die! Searching for survivors was part of our mission, don’t you remember?!”

The woman nodded after the jacket girl justified her actions.

“Aki is right. What she did was completely the right thing, even if she was a bit rekkless… No idea how else I would’ve handled it if I were her though.”

My head hurt. I slowly shook my head and forced myself to clearly think again as well.

“Ghh… I’m awake.” I proudly - and mostly pretty weakly - exclaim and explain. Well, duh. Obviously I am. They just saw me being awake and even asked me… Well, nevermind. I’ve already answered, can’t reverse that now can I.

“Very good! My name is Taya Hanebana. I am the teacher and main-instructor of those two.” The older woman really was their teacher. At least I was right regarding that.

“We are currently on the way to Tojiume, the capital. We will offer you to stay with us for as long as you want. If you want to travel more, you can do that as well… But you should probably rest for a bit.”

I slowly nod.

The guy in the tank top comes closer to me.

“Aki told me about you killing the Ushitora in a single hit! What’s all that about? Huh? You got a blessing or something?”

No idea what this guy is talking about.

“Let him relax, Aomade! He probably knows nothing about blessings… and he also probably doesn’t have the power to manage with you right now.” spoke the jacket girl… Well, I think I’ll have to call her Aki from now on.

I slowly nod, affirming her statement.

“Yeah, she’s right… I have no idea what the hell is a blessing… And I also have no idea why I was able to kill him in a single strike.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll explain everything to you in a bit. Just gather your thoughts. I don’t want to talk just for it to be completely meaningless cause you can’t properly listen.”

Taya Hanebana smiles at me and gives me a thumbs up while looking at me calmly. I smile back a bit. The carriage itself has no windows, sadly. Like I mentioned, I have never seen much of the world… So I am kind of interested in it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to look at all of the world and travel a lot. But since we are currently traveling anyway, I could’ve at least looked around a bit.

Well, that’s just how it is I guess.