Mr. Booty Man Meets Mysterious Woman

“The bees above, wake up already!”

Mitsu groaned as a hand shook his shoulder impatiently. It didn’t matter whether he was fourteen and he was being kicked in the face on a school trip by the boy sleeping in the futon above his, or Sakura was kissing him on the cheek with a mug of coffee waiting for him in her hand. Waking. Up. Sucked.

“Go away,” he slurred.

“Oh my—alright, enough. Enough! Have it your way, Mr. Booty Man.”

Mr. Booty Man.

Those words shook him awake in a way that the hand on his shoulder couldn’t.

Mitsu rolled over on his back and rubbed the sleep from his eyes furiously as he sat up. He blinked owlishly as a person the person who had been trying to wake him—a woman, he now realized—took shape before him.

Her eyes were the color of amber, and her hair was tinted like honey. She had long hair cascading down her back, and she was wearing a priestly style of robe that he hadn’t seen before.

“Sorry,” Mitsu said slowly, “can I help you…?”

“I’m…not sure. Not yet anyway.” Her voice had a mellow, almost translucent quality to it that he immediately decided that he liked. “A little bee told me you would be here, so I came to retrieve you.”

Mitsu picked a flower from his hair as he stared at her uncomprehendingly. He wasn’t quite sure what she meant by a “little bee,” but he understood enough to recognize that someone had told her about him.

“I appreciate that, but I—”

Mitsu’s words faltered as she leaned in and brushed a tuft of hair out of his face. It was a small gesture, maybe even one he’d normally feel self-conscious about in a less confusing situation, but it helped the world snap into focus properly for the first time. “It looks like you’re not hurt anywhere,” she said. “That’s good.”

“I agree, but…how did I wind up in a place like this?”

One moment he was sure he was about to die, his tires screeching as he hit the brakes, and the next he was perched atop a grassy hill in a field of flowers that seemed to stretch in an infinite sea of color. It all felt too dream-like to be real.

The woman crouched down next to him and rested her head on her knees. “One of the gods summoned you here.” The way she said it made it sound almost mundane, but the idea of being summoned by a god was such an outrageous concept to him that he was rendered speechless.

Mitsu shook his head, a nervous laugh on his lips. “A god? I don’t think so.”

She frowned. “It’s the truth. The bee even told me the god that sent the message.”

He twisted his hands in the grass and looked away from her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I know is that I was with my friend, and there was this bright light and—“

Mitsu froze, his face going numb.

Ren.

Amber’s eyebrows pinched together in concern as she looked at him. “What’s the matter?”

“My friend,” Mitsu said, feeling like the words were swallowing him, “have you seen him?” The words were such a waste to ask they became trash as soon as they fell from his mouth. They were in an open field, and neither the grass nor the flowers were tall enough to hide Ren’s large build.

Her hair rustled against the fabric of her robes as she shook her head.

He expected it. He really did. And yet, the anxiety felt like a belt notched around his waist tight enough to suffocate. Ren might have landed in some other field, but if not, then—

Mitsu almost gagged.

He couldn’t even think of the alternative.

“Hey,” Amber soothed as she placed a hand on his shoulder, “it’s okay. I’ll help you find him.”

The cynical part of his brain wanted to argue, but the impulse was squashed underneath a pang of monstrous-sized guilt. “…I should have never…”

Amber shook her head. “Instead of regretting what’s already done, I think it’s more important to focus on what you can do now.”

“And what can I do right now? I’m…I…” Mitsu had been meticulous in his search for mediums, and it had amounted to nothing more than a waist-long bill of costs to his mental and financial well-being. He could dedicate his every waking moment to finding Ren and it wouldn’t matter.

Mitsu didn’t want to let Ren down, but he didn’t have even a speck of confidence in himself anymore—after all, there wasn’t anything more discouraging than failing yourself.

Amber stood and dusted off her robes. “Well,” she drawled. “If you want to find your friend, traveling with me sounds like a good place to start, don’t you think?”

“Why would you offer to do that? You don’t even know me.”

She placed her hands on her hips and looked off into the distance. “You’re right,” she admitted, “but the god who sent you here wanted us to meet for a reason.” She fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve as she said it, and Mitsu wondered if she had a reason for seeking him out. Amidst the talk of bees and gods, he could at least believe that much.

She looked at him again, and her amber eyes seemed to burn. “We should travel together, Mitsu Kaname.”

Mitsu’s pink eyes widened. “You know my name…”

“And I’m just realizing you don’t know mine! Sorry about that.” She held out her hand to him. “My name is Amber Lamanne. It’s nice to meet you, Mitsu.”

Mitsu stared at her outstretched hand but didn’t take it. “Likewise…”

Amber didn’t seem deterred at all and continued patiently holding out her hand to him. Mitsu felt himself begin to waver.

Nothing about her gave him the impression that she was a bad person. She had her reasons for wanting to travel with him, but he doubted they were nefarious. He also recognized that he needed her. He didn’t know anything about this world. If he wanted a chance at finding Ren, she was his best bet. Besides, his stomach was already rumbling at him in outrage at Mitsu’s apparent neglect, and he couldn’t say he found the idea of living off the flowers to survive very appealing.

He was a man with nothing but a pair of BOOTY sweats to his name. Who was he to turn down her offer?

Mitsu stood and accepted her hand, his decision made. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s travel together, then.”

Amber looked relieved as she shook his hand. “Bees above, I don’t know what I would have done if you said no.”

Mitsu laughed as they mutually broke the handshake. “How could I say no in this situation?”

Amber tensed at his words. “That’s not—I don’t want to force you. If you don’t want to travel with me, it’s okay to say so. I’d still make sure you’re not stuck here wilting with the flowers either way.”

Mitsu shook his head and smiled at her softly. “I’m glad you wouldn’t abandon me to the wilds, but don’t worry so much. I want to travel with you. Really.”

Amber’s eyes shimmered under the dappled light of the tree as she looked at him. “Then…thank you.”

He chuckled and brushed his bangs out of his face. “You came all this way to find me,” he said. “I should be the one thanking you.”

The wind billowed through ripples of Amber’s honeyed hair, and her lips stretched into a smile. “You’re welcome.”