2 - First Confrontation
Rumi decided to walk straight for her little exploring section. The air was hot and the lack of any trees nearby wasn't helping, either. To make it worse, her long silver wavy hair was getting all messy with occasional hot breezes on her face and the fact that it was not tied up made her feel like she was being tortured in the heat. Rumi also found herself wearing a Japanese traditional robe like other people in the neighborhood. At least, her robes weren't torn so Rumi felt a bit better, but not much since the robes contributed more to the overheating problem.
She also was not wearing any footwear like others so walking was harder due to her not being used to walking barefoot outside. Her feet started to hurt after a while and soon, she found out that the sole of her feet was bleeding a little. She must've stepped on a sharp rock or something, she deduced.
"What a great way to start a new life.." Rumi muttered rather sarcastically.
To describe this whole experience of exploring, Rumi could only use one word - terrible. This place was basically a slum and honestly, she couldn't figure out how those people live here.
The only thing great that happened was that she at least managed to figure out some basic information about her current location.
She was now in 78th district of Rukongai, which was the largest portion of this Soul Society place. Rukongai is divided into 320 districts, with 80 districts in each direction, west, east, north, south. The higher the district number, the lower the living standards become.
So, based on this information, Rumi knew that she was now in the lowest tier of the pyramid. That made her a little upset and indignant, because why was she placed in such a low starting place? And why were there such differences in classes?
With a sigh, Rumi thought about her next steps. She definitely need to go to a better place, because she wasn't sure how she was supposed to sleep for at least ten hours a day in this district.
From what she had seen so far, these people didn't look like they could afford to eat three meals a day and they seem to cram together in tiny houses. To make it worse, there seemed to be a lot of crimes going on as in the span of an hour or so, she had seen at least ten pickpocketing incidents, theft and people straight out beating each other.
Definitely not an ideal place to have long and relaxing sleeps.
"Excuse me, do you know how to get to other districts?" Rumi found herself asking to the nicest looking guy after scanning her surroundings with her green eyes.
'At least, he didn't look like a criminal and looked nicer than others. Let's hope he knows something..' Rumi thought to herself as she waited for the guy's response.
The guy had an unremarkable appearance with normal black hair, torn clothes and such, but he smiled kindly as he listened to her question. He then replied, "How to get to other districts? I mean..I've never been to other districts before but I can show you the way if you want?"
"You'd do that for me? Thank you!" Rumi said with a smile. She found it quite hard to believe someone was that nice in this district but maybe she shouldn't assume that everyone was the same just because they live in the same rough neighborhood, she thought to herself.
"So..if you know the way to go to other better districts, why do you stay here?" Rumi asked, nevertheless. It seemed strange for someone to willingly live in a slum when they had the choice to go to a better place. While she knew it wasn't great to assume things, she also hated to be the overtrusting idiot who met her own downfall because she trusted blindly to a stranger.
"You must be a new soul." The guy said with a bitter laugh, "The road that leads to better districts are always more dangerous. There's no way I could endanger my family by bringing them. Obviously, I can't also abandon them here."
Rumi understood more about the situation with that. Souls who got to these slum districts undoubtedly wanted to go to better districts, it was a natural response, after all. So, bad people must've known this as well and could wait for poor souls who headed to those better districts to mug them and stuff. After all, people tend to bring their valuables if they were moving permanently to a place. It could be better clothes, or maybe some useful stuff. Rumi doubted people from districts like this would have any actual valuables, judging from the situation in this district, but she knew there would always be things or reasons for bad people to commit their crimes.
"I see.." Rumi nodded her head.
"Come on, I will show you the way." The guy said, signaling her to follow him.
Having nothing better to do, Rumi decided to follow him.
After walking for a while, Rumi realized they were heading to a less populated area. She started to study the guy more carefully at this point to see if she could spot anything suspicious.
He was walking at a normal pace, but would wait for her to adjust to his pace at times. It looked like he was being considerate of her not being familiar with walking barefoot to long distances but Rumi felt that he was acting far too laidback. It was as if this was kind of a routine for him.
"So..how long have you been here?" Rumi asked.
"About twenty years, I think." The guy replied, then he smiled, "A bit hard to remember or care about new years when you're struggling to survive."
"I see, you have a family, right?" Rumi asked.
"..uh.yeah, I have two little brothers.." The guy answered.
"Oh, how old are they? I bet you care about them a lot." Rumi replied, as he mentioned him not wanting to leave his family.
"They're a few years younger than me, yeah.."
"What are their names? Oh wait, I don't even know your name yet!" Rumi exclaimed, lightly slapping her own forehead as if to blame her own forgetful nature.
The guy laughed awkwardly and replied, "You can call me Ryo."
"I'm Rin." Rumi said with a smile, even though she was basically lying and giving a fake name. She didn't fully trust this guy so why should she give him her real name?
"Nice to meet you, Rin chan." The guy said in a friendly tone but Rumi felt that it was more creepy the way he was saying.
Anyways, Rumi continued asking him about his life and how living in 78th district was in general. He said that it was pretty tough and he and his siblings could barely drink water when they were young as those stinky adults hoarded it themselves. He told stories of how he had to steal water occasionally so that he and his siblings could survive, and how he usually got beaten up when he got caught.
Then, Rumi asked how his little sister was doing, after talking to him and agreeing, sympathizing his experiences.
"She's good, just like all of us.." He replied.
"Oh, I thought you only had two brothers..Ryo san?" Rumi asked like she was confused.
"I..uh..thought you asked about my brother.." He replied, biting his lower lip.
He started to look nervous since her question and she noticed him starting to pick up his pace. It was as if he was in a hurry to get her to a location. He would also turn around more and more frequently as if he was worried she would stay back without him knowing.
'I guess everyone in the district is more or less the same...' She thought to herself, looking at the guy becoming more and more suspicious.
'System, would my passive skill Sloth work in defending myself against that guy? I saw the description said it boosts my efficiency when I do something, right?'
Rumi decided to confirm whether she could deal with this guy if needed or if she needed to worry. System quickly answered her question,
[Answer : It would work if you replicate some self-defense move you already know. With the passive skill Sloth, your performance of that move will be amplified by ten times to make it more effective.]
Rumi sighed in relief at the answer. That was great to know.
Although she didn't know any fancy or advanced martial art moves, she had learnt one or two self-defense moves in her past life, given that she lived alone most of the time due to her aunt, her only relative she has left, being in hospital almost all her life.
One self-defense move she had absolute trust in was of course, kicking in the nuts. It only worked on guys but thanks to the lucky stars, this was a guy. So, Rumi was confident that she could at least make this guy crouche in pain for a while.
Relaxed, Rumi pretended to not even notice and kept chatting with the guy while following him as she was led to less and less populated area. Although she initially wanted to go back to the more populated areas, she was also kind of curious to where this would go. Besides, there was a small voice in her head saying, 'What if he actually knows the way?'. Despite his intentions or how this would go, it'd be very helpful to at least know the way, Rumi decided.
As they got to more secrete areas, the guy turned to look at her even more frequently, and it was becoming more and more apparent that this guy had some sinister intentions than having made a honest awkward mistake in conversation.
After walking for a few more minutes and finally getting to the place he desired, the guy finally took off his whole nice guy mask as Rumi suspected.
He smiled in a way that was more creepy than scary, before breaking out to fullblown laughters like he was genuinely amused.
"Hahahaha..I can't believe you'd be this dumb to follow me here even after I almost busted this whole act. Now, now, a pretty looking girl all helpless and alone with me in the least populated area in this whole district? Come on, I can't even contain my excitement." He started with his bullsh*t villain talk but Rumi thought he looked more like a pathetic loser who couldn't even get a girl so he started to resort to pathetic methods.
"So..in short, you've got no game and now, you're resorting to these pathetic methods. Dude, how desparate are you?" Rumi said. If she didn't trashtalk the enemy now, when should she? Also, if she didn't trashtalk before beating someone up, was it even actually winning?
Her words seemed to anger the guy a great Relaxed, Rumi pretended to not even notice and kept chatting with the guy while following him as she was led to less and less populated area. Although she initially wanted to go back to the more populated areas, she was also kind of curious to where this would go. Besides, there was a small voice in her head saying, 'What if he actually knows the way?'. Despite his intentions or how this would go, it'd be very helpful to at least know the way, Rumi decided.
As they got to more secrete areas, the guy turned to look at her even more frequently, and it was becoming more and more apparent that this guy had some sinister intentions than having made a honest awkward mistake in conversation.
After walking for a few more minutes and finally getting to the place he desired, the guy finally took off his whole nice guy mask as Rumi suspected.
He smiled in a way that was more creepy than scary, before breaking out to fullblown laughters like he was genuinely amused.
"Hahahaha..I can't believe you'd be this dumb to follow me here even after I almost busted this whole act. Now, now, a pretty looking girl all helpless and alone with me in the least populated area in this whole district? Come on, I can't even contain my excitement." He started with his bullsh*t villain talk but Rumi thought he looked more like a pathetic loser who couldn't even get a girl so he started to resort to pathetic methods.
"So..in short, you've got no game and now, you're resorting to these pathetic methods. Dude, how desparate are you?" Rumi said. If she didn't trashtalk the enemy now, when should she? Also, if she didn't trashtalk before beating someone up, was it even actually winning?
Her words seemed to anger the guy a great deal, as if it struck right in his sore spot.
"Seems like I was actually right!" Rumi exclaimed more cheerfully, which acted like rubbing salt in his injury. The guy was downright mad right now and grabbed her.
Rumi, of course, knew this was coming since people were most predictable when they were blinded by anger. She managed to dodge his hands trying to grab her and applied her knowledge of self-defense to perform her very prized move.
As Rumi kicked the guy in the nuts, he crouched down immediately and rolled around in the dirt, all the while screaming and crying in absolute pain.
'Looks like he won't be able to even get up for a while.' Rumi thought as she looked at the guy. Satisfied with the outcome for now, Rumi decided to leave there and search for a safe place to sleep.
After all, the passive skill Sloth was the only reason her kick was that powerful and effective. In order to ensure that the passive skill would be always on, she needed her ten hours of peaceful sleep.