Chapter 15 Return

Feeling a soft sensation writhing in her arms, Shizu awoke from her sleep as her eyes began to open. Looking around, she could tell that she was in her tent but she was startled by the sight of Azi's drooling face nestled into her chest. While she would usually pulverize any man that would try to be so intimate with her, she remembered that she took up Azi's offer to hug him to sleep.

Looking closer at him, she felt like his face seemed a bit cute as his smiling face seemed so at ease and at peace.

Deciding to indulge in Azi's antics, she began petting Azi's head and ran her fingers through his disheveled black hair. 'His hair is so soft and he feels so warm. Maybe I should keep him as a pet in my personal guard. I'm sure the girl would love to pet him as well'

Letting that joking thought stew, her mind clicked and an idea came to mind. She knew of her father's recent activities of recruiting or hiring vagabonds and orphans to bolster the nation's workforce with new blood.

She also wanted to uncover more about him as he seemed so different from any man she had encountered. No furry ears, no tail, and a mysterious past. All of this piqued her interest and a smile of anticipation formed on her face as she began to make the most of the situation.

Intensifying her petting she felt that the soft sensation of his hair was quite pleasing but seeing his soft cheeks she wondered how it would feel to pinch them. As she was drawing her hand close to his cheeks, she halted just an inch away since she abruptly heard a familiar voice enter the tent.

"Shizu! I know you are still sad but I need to talk....?"

Flipping up the flap of the tent, the last part of Kajima's words trailed off as he was stepping into Shizu's tent. A moment passed as they made eye contact but he then began to backpedal out of the tent at top speed.

"Don't worry, mourn in the way you wish."

Exasperated by the turn of events, Shizu let go of Azi's head as she got up to stop Kajima from leaving.

"Wait! You misunderstand!" Thinking that Kajima saw her doing something indecent with Azi, she attempted to catch up to him before he was out of reach.

Suddenly letting go of Azi caused his head to no longer have any support. He was quickly jolted awake as his head impacted the hard surface of the mat he was sleeping on.

"Ouch!" Rubbing the back of his head he tried to get his bearings.

"Ugh. Shizu! Could you be gentler when you are grasping someone's head?"

Hearing his voice, Kajima turned in response and was taken aback. He truly thought that Azi was dead, but to now see him seemingly alive and kicking all Kajima could do was gawk for a moment. He then bellowed out in surprise and called out for the Apothecary and Thaumaturge in a panic.

"Yashimu! Bring the Apothecary and Thaumaturge, the boy is ALIVE, he's ALIVE!!"

This bellow was heard by everyone in the camp who were performing their midday duties. They were also taken aback by Kajima's statement as they all saw how lifeless Azi's body was and knew that the observations of the trained apothecary and thaumaturge were very accurate.

If the patient was declared dead by the both of them, then the patient was believed to be truly gone. The thought of the boy being alive befuddled everyone's mind and doubt started to cloud their thoughts.

Yashimu, who recomposed himself, quickly called for the two trained practitioners and requested them to reexamine Azi. After a round of examinations made by the Apothecary, which involved Azi testing his primary senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, he was deemed to be truly alive.

The Thaumaturge then gathered white motes of light into her hand and then started to move the light in her hand onto Azi's head and heart. The Thaumaturge was surprised by her findings as the previously empty space in Azi's spiritual body was now filled with what her training taught her to interpret as a soul.

Realizing that the thaumaturge might have made a mistake in her previous observation, she grimaced with guilt on her face.

"It seems I made a mistake, while it seemed your soul had left your body when I last examined you. It seems that it was still within you but was in a dormant state that was undetectable. Lady Shizu. I apologize for my carelessness."

Waving off the woman's concern, Shizu promptly asked her to continue her observation.

"It's alright but how is his condition, can he move, and will he be ok?"

"Physically he is fine." Answered the Apothecary. "Only slight malnutrition due to how he has not eaten in a while and his body used up a lot of energy to heal itself when we treated him with magic. There is evidence of slight strain on his body from the battle with the kengiri so he can't really move on his own for a couple hours."

The Thaumaturge then added.

"Spiritually he is back to normal, but it seems the color of his aura is clouded, he may be experiencing some stress or past trauma. His aura is less cloudy than the last time I examined him, so it seems he is on the road to recovery. Tell me, what did you do while he was with you?"

With a red face, Shizu fidgeted a bit in her seat next to Azi. "Well, … I was hugging him, I thought that if I kept him warm, … he would wake up on his own… ."

With a look of incredulity, the Thaumaturge tried to make sense of the unusual turn of events. Still, she thought nothing of Shizu's actions and chalked it up to a mistake on her part.

"I suppose what you did helped and your guess was correct. But why are you blushing?"

"No reason!"

Shizu turned away from the Thaumaturge and quickly spoke to Yashimu.

"Brother, what is our next step?"

Not minding his sister's abrupt change in subject, he put his hand on his chin to contemplate their next course of action.

"The team I sent to give a message to our father has returned and since we have disassembled the kengiri we should split our forces in two. One will head back with the current batch of prey while the other gathers the remaining prey we left behind."

During the investigation, all teams followed a standard practice when disposing of monsters or animals. After killing a monster or animal, it was to be disassembled and stored away for later acquisition. Ordering a soldier to bring him his bag, he then rummaged through it and handed her an updated map with a safer route back to the village.

"Shizu, you will lead the team heading back to the village with our current batch of prey and I will stay to move the remaining prey we left behind and to further our investigation. The presence of a kengiri means that there maybe more."

"Understood." Said Shizu. "I will set out as soon as we are ready."

Yashimu nodded to his sister and then looked at Azi who had been told to lay down. He was still surprised that Azi had made a miraculous recovery and now felt a slight headache upon him as he would have to tell his father that the "seed" he had found did not in fact die.

He could already envision his father's face of anger as he scolded him for giving him a false report, especially when it was concerning the dead or wounded.

After a bit of time, the temporary camp was disassembled and the group was split into two. Shizu led Kajima, Azi, and 4 soldiers to Shisayama while Yashimu took the Apothecary, Thaumaturge, and the remaining soldiers with him.

Azi was to lay on a stretcher carried by 2 soldiers throughout the trip back to the village due to how weak his body was at the moment.

This was also at the Apothecary's and Thaumaturge's insistence as they believed that Azi should take it easy and that they should air on the side of caution. The two practitioners were still skeptical of how Azi came back to life and feared that his condition might rebound if put under too much physical or mental stress.

After everyone did a bit of chatting while preparing to depart, both parties set off just a little bit after late noon.

While on the way to Shisayama, Kajima took it upon himself to scold Azi for worrying him but soon decided to continue where they last left off concerning forest survival lessons. They talked about the more dangerous plants, the less dangerous medicinal herbs, and where they could be found.

Shizu and the 2 soldiers beside her glanced behind their backs to occasionally see the boy in the stretcher and the old man bantering about a variety of topics like a boisterous father and son.

This caused a slight chuckle from each soldier as the sight of a 2 meter man patting the head of a boy laying on a stretcher was quite comedic as Azi's eyes sparkled with interest and delight. This also contrasted with Kajima's history and previous reputation as a battle-hardened veteran of multiple wars.

The chuckling only got harder to contain as Shizu revealed Azi's actual age which got surprised looks out of them which then turned to raucous laughter as they cracked a few jokes to make the journey back more enjoyable.

Kajima and Azi looked on at the laughing soldiers at the front and knew who likely got them so riled up as they turned their gazes to Shizu who was hiding a snicker from them. The 2 soldier's laughter continued but died down when the party reached the entrance to the village.

When they arrived inside, Shizu turned to Kajima. "If you could, please take Azi home with you. I need all the soldiers to help carry the bags of prey we have."

"Sure thing little lass. Come Azi, climb on my back."

Nodding in agreement, Azi was helped up by 2 of the soldiers. Now clinging onto Kajima's back in a piggyback position, Azi waved goodbye to the group.

will see you after I talk with my father."

"I'll see you in the future, Shizu. Take care."

"Oh don't worry, I will see you after I talk with my father."

Shizu waved back and levied a somewhat smug smirk at him. "Get some rest and prepare yourself. I want to give you a lecture about your reckless actions as those that don't follow orders have to take responsibility for their mistakes."

Thinking back, Azi remembered that the original plan during the fight was for him to defend against, not kill, the 3 gengiri and while this would be of no concern as the results were better than expected. He knew that he had disobeyed the commands of their party leader.

'I get the feeling I am going to be yelled at.'

With this thought in his mind, he turned his head away from Shizu as he tried to pretend to sleep to make it look as if he did not hear what she said.

Not noticing his actions, Shizu turned around in the opposite direction of Azi and Kajima to issue orders.

With a salute, the soldiers redistributed the bags filled with monster parts and filed them into two columns that Shizu then led back to the barracks. After situating them, she then went to meet with Ozen in the village chief's house as she had a matter she wanted to talk about.

While this was occurring, Kajima was carrying Azi on his back as they continued the conversation about a variety of topics.

Azi took a mental note of all the important places he saw while on the way back to Kajima's and one sight caught his attention. Down the road was a group of village children as they ran by them as they were playing a game of tag.

He smiled at the sight and remembered a time when he was that young. It was a simpler time where he could run and play all day in the sun and be able to talk so carefree with the people he could consider friends.

For a brief moment, he reminisced on what memories he could remember about his latter life after his childhood which was uncomfortable for him as he felt that he never made any real friends during that period.

The friends he made as a kid had left him as some moved away while the rest were unable to contact him as he had to change schools at one point.

This was also compounded by how his parents taught him when he was older that he had to keep to himself. He was taught to only trust family rather than friends which left a divide in Azi's mind between himself and other people.

To prove his parents wrong and show that he could trust his friends he chose to do the opposite and acted very friendly towards others. While he wanted to prove his point, he could recall that part of the reason was to spite his parent's teachings.

Nonetheless, he did what he thought was right and over time he did make new friends but as he remembered his memory of when he was being fired from his job. He realized that friends will always leave you if you are of no use to them and that if you ever met them again, they would not always try to reconnect.

He remembered trying to be friends with his mentors, but they brushed off his attempts to get along. Nonetheless, Azi still persisted but felt betrayed when he remembered the smile of glee on his mentor's face as he was getting fired.

Azi then thought of Shizu and felt happy that he was able to make a friend again but felt a sense of loss as he knew that one day, she might leave him should he be of no use to her. This was supported as he was a mere peasant in this world while she was an ordained knight of Kujyuri.

His face formed into a small sad smile so he decided then and there to take a nap to clear his head.

He felt tired and didn't want to think for a while as so much had happened to him in the past two days.

At the same time, Kajima was about to talk to Azi about another topic but heard a soft snoring coming from his back. Chuckling, Kajima carefully carried Azi back to his house.

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