The next half hour passed in a long conversation.
Aya told Kenshin about herself — that her parents had died when she was little, victims of the Third Shinobi World War.
And although civilians were usually left alone, her parents had been traveling in the same caravan as several Konoha shinobi, and the entire caravan had been wiped out by a sabotage squad from Iwagakure.
Little Aya was left in the care of her grandmother and grandfather.
Her grandmother was a seamstress and taught the girl the craft.
Her grandfather was a carpenter and often worked in Konoha, from where he brought his little granddaughter many sweets and fascinating stories.
Aya’s grandmother died two years ago, and six months ago her grandfather died, leaving the young girl a complete orphan.
After listening to the girl’s touching story, Kenshin pulled her closer and hastened to comfort her when he saw two small trails of tears.
He conducted several experiments to determine the degree of his control over her and found that the girl’s personality hadn’t changed, but she was ready to carry out any request or command of his.
Horrified by the prospect of unconsciously harming the girl by saying something that would be perceived as a command, Kenshin discussed with her the main points of her submission, assuring her that she had the right to challenge his words or opinions, but was obliged to obey immediately if the tone of his voice became icy and utterly serious.
The young man decided that this kind of demarcation was the only thing that would help them maintain a semblance of normal life.
While they were talking, the vegetable soup on the stove was finally ready, and the couple sat down to breakfast.
Kenshin made a mental note to find at least a map of the area, and preferably of the whole world.
Unfortunately, the girl didn’t have one at home.
As soon as they finished eating and Aya began washing the dishes, a loud knock came at the door, along with an impatient shout: “Aya, open up!
The old woman from the shop let it slip that she saw you with some guy!
Who is he?
Open up, damn it!”
Anger began to boil in Kenshin’s chest, and he headed for the door, wearing only pants, no shirt.
“Get lost, Aya’s busy and doesn’t want to see you,” Kenshin said, opening the door and seeing a fat man with a sweaty face before him.
The man just stood there, mouth open in shock, his hand frozen mid-knock.
“You fucking whore!” Kaito shouted and tried to step inside, but took a fist to the nose and stumbled back a few steps, falling off the porch onto his ass.
The fat man stared at Kenshin in shock, unable to utter a word.
Blood flowed from his broken nose, running down his lips and chin.
“You…
You!
You’re dead!
Do you know who you hit?!
Just wait, you and that whore will regret everything!” Kaito shouted angrily, and seeing Kenshin moving toward him, quickly scrambled to his feet and ran off at full speed in an unknown direction.
“Damn it, that’s all I needed…” Kenshin muttered with a sigh, stepping back inside and closing the door behind him.
He realized that his plans for moving needed to be accelerated to the maximum, and entering the kitchen, he told Aya to pack for the road.
The girl didn’t resist this decision at all, only asking where and for how long.
Kenshin said forever and told her to pack light things, while he himself began loading bags with a small amount of provisions — literally enough for a few days — but he packed all the salt and spices, not forgetting to grab the first aid kit.
He knew he would inevitably forget something valuable, but there simply wasn’t time.
He desperately didn’t want to be that “incompetent patriarch” who gets beaten to death by a few ordinary people.
He didn’t consider himself super-strong and realistically assessed his chances against a group of people with weapons, even if they were homemade.
Half an hour later, Kenshin and Aya finished packing two large backpacks of belongings and slipped out of the house unnoticed, leaving through the backyard in an “unknown direction.”
Another half hour later, the door to Aya’s house was kicked in, and five men of a thuggish appearance burst inside.
After tearing the whole house apart, they began questioning the neighbors, but found no leads on where the young girl and the “enemy village spy” who had taken the poor girl hostage, brainwashed her, and raped her had suddenly disappeared to.
That’s how Kaito had spun the story, looking for justification for the future lynching.
* * *
Once outside the village, Kenshin stopped and asked Aya: “Is there any hard-to-reach, uninhabited area nearby?
The harder to reach, the better!”
The girl thought for a few seconds and said: “Mmm, to the east of the village there’s a big forest that turns into large and impassable mountains, but it’s several hours to the forest…”
“Excellent, just what we need!
Lead the way,” the young man replied with enthusiasm, pleased with even this small stroke of luck.
The young man and the girl headed in the right direction, carrying large bags of belongings, but luckily for them, they didn’t run into anyone.
After three hours of walking, they approached the forest and sat down to rest in the thicket.
Kenshin cursed himself for not bringing more water on the road.
The waterskin he’d taken was almost empty, and the nearest mountain was still two hours away.
He was very surprised when Aya said she didn’t know about the existence of plastic bottles or technologies like televisions or refrigerators.
He wondered why the anime he’d watched as a teenager was so different from reality.
“Maybe Kishimoto somehow got knowledge from this world, or was able to see its history, and added technologies known to our world himself?
Or maybe this world isn’t real, and I was thrown into a fictional world by someone’s evil will…
Or maybe I’m asleep and it’s all a dream…
Or maybe…” Kenshin cut off his thoughts, deciding not to fill his head with nonsense.
Kenshin pulled Aya close and began to rest, sitting with his back against a large tree.
He felt that this young beauty could give him a charge of energy just by her presence, and he madly loved hugging her, inhaling her delicate floral scent, and caressing her small, fragile body.
The girl purred softly and completely surrendered to her man’s loving embrace.