4 Encounter

After a long while, Saito regained his consciousness. He tried moving his hand as he couldn't clearly see and was still on the ground. What greeted his hand was something big round and soft...., "ah~" and there was also a cute moan which jolted his consciousness back to 100%. The moment he woke up he saw something that made him speechless. He was currently enjoying a lap pillow and his hand was happily groping what seems to be a D-cup, it was very peaceful and silent and very calming....., "What the heck!?" He said out loud. An alluring female voice said, "Master~ if you keep on doing thi- ah~" before she could finish yet another moan escaped. His face was blood red and he immediately retracted his hand from the heaven (Saito: STOP IT!!!!!!) and retreated back. He stared at the women who gave him lap pillow. She was wearing shrine maiden cloth which was white in color with blue full handed sleeves. Her face had a beautiful smile plastered on it which had the power of melting anyone's heart if they see it.

Being dazed by such a captive figure, he finally noticed that she had cat ears and a fluffy tail. Then it struck to him, she looks more like a cat-girl with fluffy tail....? Noticing his confused look the women said, "Master, I'm Itonirashi, your loyal servant" she bowed when she said that. He understood now, it all made sense now! But he was curious about something. "Say, if you are nirashi then how come you are in a.....female form?" He directly asked her. She only smiled before saying, "I'm a wolf familiar, if master wants I can change my appearance to a male". He thought for a bit and decided, "no, that's not necessary, i was just confused since you had the voice of male at first". 'hmhmhm~ that was because I was inside that blade for almost 40 generations, so my voice also got rusted" she said while still holding that smile on her face. 'So I got no other choice than to accept this explanation huh?' He thought to himself. He let out a *sigh* and looked at her as he asked, "so, any idea on this world?". "No master, I'm also new to this environment like you, but there's one thing that's familiar to me" she said this in a serious manner. Seeing that she became serious he also turned on the serious mode, "what is it?". "This world has a lot of spiritual energy and it's more than our previous one" she said.

"Spiritual... Energy? What's that? Is that something like mana or something?" He asked in a confused way. Seeing that he has no knowledge of it she started explaining, "Spiritual energy is something that originate from souls and spirits, may it be good or evil. Sometimes this type of energy won't always get stored up in a vessel but leak away. The vessel refers to all kind of living organisms like plants, animals, birds and humans, anything with life force in it. Once the vessel dies, the energy disappears. And us spirits are like that but since we don't have any vessel, we posses objects. Once we posses it, it becomes our eternal vessel. As long as it's intact we will live on. And also, over use of spiritual energy can end in losing consciousness and sometime endanger life force" she said the last part seriously. "So its definitely like mana huh?" He said in a low voice. Hearing a foreign word she tilt her head sideways and asked in a confused way, "mana? What is that, Master?". Hearing her ask him a question, he came back to reality and looked at her tilting her head in a cute way which made her look like a doll. Controlling his urge to snuggle her he coughed and said, "its the spiritual energy you just said only thing is that in olden days it was called as spiritual energy but in modern world it was called mana and it only exist in frictional world" he shrugged as he said. "Oh, so that's what mana means!" She said with amusement. "I'm still surprised that there was still knowledge existed on spiritual energy, Master!" Her eyes shone. He could only *sigh* as he don't want to go further as it will a pain to explain any further.

He then realized that he was back to normal and that shining armor was nowhere to be seen. He asked her, "what happened to that armor? Did you make it disappear?". "Yes, since master was unconscious, I made it go to make master more comfortable" she said with a cute smile. He was having a hard time resisting his urge to snuggle her. He threw the trash thoughts away and said, "ok let's go scout this forest. We don't know where we are, so its best if we stick together and look for a place with people". She nodded to his suggestion and she got up.

Before she could change he spoke, "hey nirashi, can you change my clothes?". Her face was red after hearing that. She said, "Ma- Master, don't you think its a little too early for that?" She looked at him with a pouting expression. Only then did he realize what he said. His face temperature skyrocketed as he explained himself, "no no no no! You totally misunderstood me! I asked you to change this rag-taded clothes I'm wearing with your spiritual powers! Don't take it in a perverted way!". She immediately got back to her former composure and lifted her right hand and pointed it at him as her palm faced him. Her body started shining with blue light. She then said, "Master, please imagine the clothes that you want to wear". Hearing her suddenly say he didn't know what to imagine and it was too late. She channeled her spiritual energy towards him. The blue light wrapped him and she let her hand down. Due to suddenly hearing something like that, he couldn't choose something fit for the location like his trooper uniform. The light dispersed from him and Nirashi stood there with her mouth wide gapped.

Seeing her like this, he thought his costume must be weird. He looked at himself and what he saw made him mouth gapped as well. He was once again in a Samurai attire. This one looked different from before. The previous armor was made of silver, whereas this is made of metal and had a coat. The helmet looked different as well as it had an arch upside down in the forehead. He also had a red scarf around his neck, hiding his lower part of the face. His chest armor was a bit different. The silver armor had plain chest armor, but this one had small square like pieces joined to make an chainmail like armor. His coat was black in color with white bordering as it hid his armor till shoulder. All in all, he looked really cool like a black Samurai. He then coughed to release the atmosphere from a shocked one to a normal one. He looked at her and asked, "why are you so shocked? Isn't this just a Samurai armor?". She was brought back to the present after hearing his question. She said, "that's not just any Samurai armor, master. Its the armor of the champion, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the Executioner, he is considered as one of the best Samurai of all time and his skills cannot be trifle with". He then asked the stupidest question, "is he that good? I just pictured the painting in our house, didn't know that it was his armor". She was loss for words, how could someone from the Araya family forget the great Minamoto no Yoshitsune? He was one of the greatest figures in Japan and also had good relation with the Araya family. She let the matter slid. She can only say that the new generation forgot the greatness and sacrifices the old ones made. She then closed her eyes and changed into the demon blade.

Saito went near and picked it up. After all that, he found north and started to walk in that direction.

........

After what seemed like 3 hours, the light started to dim a bit. "Its getting dark, we gotta find a place to stay fast, I don't wanna be out here in this unknown forest when the dark comes" he said while looking at the sky. "I agree with Master's suggestion, this place is giving a bad feeling" nirashi in blade form said. He only walked a bit before meeting the first 'human' person he ever saw in this world. 'Finally!' He thought as he approached them.

Feeling that someone's nearing her, she immediately turned and saw someone in a weird looking clothes. She got scared and shouted, "AHHHHHHHHHHH! don't come near me! Demon!" Her voice was like that of someone same age as him. "Demon!? Where!?" He got in front of her and turned around gripping his blade while looking at his surrounding with sharp gaze. She got more scared when he came close to her, so she lost her balance and fell on the ground. She closed her eyes ready to meet her fate but nothing happened. Confused, she opened them and saw that the scary person was standing in front of her with his back facing her and his right hand was gripping the handle of his sword and his left hand holding its sheath.

Before she could say something he spoke, "where is that demon you just said" his voice carried confusion as he removed his hand from his blade. She was still scared off her wits, but seeing that the figure in front of her was not going to do anything to her she calmed down a bit. She asked him, "who....are you?" Her voice had a trace of fear and confusion. Seeing that she was scared of him, he realized that she must have thought him of a demon due to his costume. "I'm....." He thought for a bit and decided to go with his real name. "I'm Saito, I traveled here from far east" he came up with an excuse. She then visibly looked relaxed as the man in front of her won't hurt her in anyway. she then smiled and said, "I'm Elizabeth, I'm from a village nearby, pleased to meet you" she gave a small bow at the end which made him quite curious if she was really a village girl or not? He pushed that matter to the sides. She scanned him from top to bottom and asked, "are you really from the far east? I heard no one lives that far". He looked at her when she asked him that and said, "that's because no one tried to travel that far from both the sides, the way maybe occupied mostly by barbarians" he came up with yet another excuse. She nodded her head and looked at his clothes. It was very different from what she ever saw before. Curiously, she asked him, "are you a noble from the east by any chance? Your clothes are really different and do all the people in the east wear clothes like this?" She bombarded him with questions. Facing her questions he let out a *sigh* and said, "ts getting really dark now, I think its better for us to leave this place, its not a great idea to spend the night in the forest without fire. You said your from a village nearby right? Can you take me there?". She thought for a moment and hesitated. Looking at her hesitate, he assured her, "don't worry I'm not someone suspicious". Hearing him say she could only nod and lead the way.

Right at the moment they moved, a shadow in the bush moved as well. Hearing the sound Saito said, "stop! Don't move!". She suddenly froze hearing him shout behind her. She turned around to ask him why he shouted, but the moment she turned a shadow from the bush 4 feet away from her, launched itself at her. She saw the figure, red eyes, black appearance, four legs, it was a black beast dog! She reflexively closed her eyes. The next moment a another figure dashed to her front from the side and punched the beast near the neck. The beast flew towards a tree and hit it hard from the force of the punch that send it flying. It tried to stand and looked at the one who punched it with such force.

Saito who heard the sound from the side immediately became alert and warned Elizabeth but the figure already jumped from the bush at her. Too bad Nirashi already told him it was in the bush near Elizabeth. He immediately dashed to her side and gave the strongest punch he could using the momentum. The figure then flew and hit the nearby tree after receiving him punch. It then stood up and looked at it with burning rage in its already red eyes, it was a damn black panther! The somewhat dark forest didn't provided it much cover so he can easily see it.

He then took his stance and gripped his blade and looked at the panther with sharp gaze, noting every movement it made. The panther also looked at him sharply. Time flew by, the panther made a move and dashed towards him and launched itself in the air. He moved to the left the moment it neared him and drew his blade from the saya and perfectly cut its neck which was wide open to him and beheaded it.

It was very quiet. She looked at him in a new light. Him on the other hand was scanning the surrounding. He then said, "its best if we get to that village of yours quickly as possible or it might get troublesome real soon". She came back to her senses as she nodded and lead the way. He followed her suit. She stopped and looked at him, confused. Seeing her confused expression he asked her, "what's wrong? Lead the way we can't stay here longer". She then said, "aren't you gonna take that? It will get you good money you know?". Hearing her say, he looked at the panther and thought about it a bit and decided to carry it with him. Seeing that he just like that picked it up, she was loss for words. She asked him, "don't you have anything to store it in? Like a storage pendent or sort? Aren't you a noble from the east?". He *sighed* shook his head, "we don't have those things in the east and when did I say that I'm a noble from east?". She became flushed for wrongly assuming him and asked, "earlier when I asked if you were a noble from the east, you didn't say anything, so I assumed....". He spoke before she could finish, "that I am a noble? I didn't say I am one nor I'm not one, I just kept quite that's all, but in truth I'm a warrior". Her eyes shone yet again as she asked, "as a knight? Are you a knight of the east?". He *sighed* and said, "yes I'm like a knight in the east and its better if we get going, you can ask all you want after we reach that village of yours!". He started rushing her, this women does not seems to understand the situation they were in, the light was fading and only a little remained.

She became aware of the Surrounding and nodded in serious as she started running in the direction of the village as Saito followed her suite.