A Little Kindness

[Saryuu Evan]

Upon entering the town, it wasn't even mid-afternoon as they were entering into the gates to which was guarded by several guards on each side of the entrance.

"Halt, who goes there?" asked one of the guards in armor approaching Saryuu and the others investigating them for a moment. "Well, you kids look a little young to be traveling on your own. Where are your parents?"

Saryuu had to keep his calm as the very talk about parents and anything relating to the subject was a very sore spot to explain as he chuckled, "Easy there, we were just heading back home."

Of course, the guard glared at them for a moment before another came over from a short distance as he added,"Don't mind him. He always does this whenever it comes to outsiders traveling alone who are young, however, I don't think we've seen you lot about these parts to be honest. Regardless, it's normal especially when we've been experiencing an influx as of recently so you know. All that we can ask that you kids better be sure to keep outta trouble. Understand? We'll be watching."

The greenette walked a bit as he nodded,"We understand. Though, one more thing, where are we exactly?"

"You're on Erde Nona and this is the Kingdom of Arcadia led by King Tyree VI." the guard explained before the other added, "Our Kingdom has experienced much loss especially when it came with the young King. A tragedy overtook the royal family and he was the only survivor remaining after the old King was usurped of power over a bloody coup."

"Oh, we're very sorry for the loss." Fei replied calmly as the guard added, "Much appreciated. He is merely a child around your age when he ascended the throne. He still has much to learn but the poor boy, having so much burden on his shoulders of running a Kingdom, it is no easy task. However, despite of what happens, we keep moving forward as hope still shines for us and occasional mourning for the Royal Family are often a thing. Especially with the nobles."

Saryuu didn't know what to say but these adults didn't exactly help him out while Fei sympathized with the guards however memories of when they visited medieval France as he remembered Jeanne for a moment. She was in the same position except she was a soldier that had to continue to lead on despite of the bloody battle going on, the swords clashing and else-wise were echoing in his mind, and before long, he was staring out to space for a moment before he nodded.

"Thank you for understanding," the guard replied before he would step out of the way. "Say, what is that little creature with you? A fae of sorts? They are common in the Hinterland territory after but some are extremely rare if you look far enough. Just be careful if you have plans because it's a dangerous world out there especially for you."

"I think?" asked Fei before he looked to Tenma with Pixie for a bit almost if he wanted the other to explain, however the guard continued,"You don't have to explain. Though, keep a close eye on it."

Eventually that was Saryuu's queue as he asked, "Hey, one thing, do you know where there is a place to stay at around here?"

The guard thought for a bit and replied,"Yeah. There are inns around here that offer free lodging, services and meals for travelers. I believe on is nearby here called Arcadia's View and it's a little farther in town as it's near the main street on your left if you look hard enough, you can't miss it. If you need help, ask a villager, they will point you to the right path."

"Thanks for the information." Saryuu nodded with a smile before the other guard added," Well, have a nice day, alright?"

Judging by the albino, he just wants to hurry up and get a place so they can get settle down, along with other things that are bugging him as much the guard seems to had notice somewhat.

 

[Matsukaze Tenma]

If there was one thing he knew about himself was that he was terrible at keeping a secret.
As in really bad; he always got caught and that went double for lies.. and they didn’t even have to be lies! Even if was a surprise! Always! Especially if it was Aoi or his cousin!

It even happened to white lines, so he opened his mouth to answer and did not in fact answer. Saru had it covered. If he tried to explain there would be so much more to explain. It wasn’t that he liked lying, just that he always choked and it was so obvious. Maybe it was more like he was physically incapable of lying, so just didn’t lie all that much. Naturally, he still got caught. So he closed his mouth and twitched a little as he tried not to give anything away to the guards that this was in fact a white lie.

Then the other guard started glaring at them, searching their facers and all he could think was, how did he give this away? Because he was staring in a searching way.

And Tenma? No, he was absolutely sure that he had managed to give even this white lie away somehow. Nope, nope, please believe Saru, they were just going home here. Wherever here was. They were just normal children traveling by themselves, nothing to look at here! He stood straighter, his spine ramrod straight. See! Normal! Well normal children on their normal way home on their normal planet ruled by a normal king. Their king. Yep!

Their king that was just as young as them… which sounded awful and terrible. Rough. And everyone was sad about it too? It sounded sad, and he just couldn’t imagine, not really. Even though he was standing before the guards, he could hear something as one of them finished their solemn recounting of events. Events they didn’t know about and… there was pain. Or maybe it was more pain was on their faces?

… And he did not give it away.

How? Did he not?
… So… they really weren’t on Earth though?

… That was bad, really bad! As in catastrophically bad! Well, maybe he was exaggerating, but, he was the captain of Inazuma Japan, a REPRESENTATIVE of JAPAN on the world stage of soccer. Probably not anymore, but, still! While he might not understand time travel, as in barely understand it, at the least he knew he could get back to his place and at his time. WHAT HAPPENED? While Tenma might have been staring blankly at the guard pointing at his unique and recently acquired strange fairy like companion… from his dreams, he barely registered anyone’s words. Why? It just hit him, that as of now, it might be much harder getting back. That was a Problem. The bigger Problem? This was nothing short of a DISASTER, because… because… well because this was IMPORTANT.

Except… it wasn’t.

It wasn’t as much as a disaster. Everyone… everyone was going to leave anyway. Except for three other people, they would leave. Their team did not have… replacements. He had drafted that letter himself. He had CRIED over it. Because even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was almost sure that almost everyone was going to leave. And he had to be the one to write it and send it out. Or was. As much as he was panicking… a part of him wasn’t. There was nothing… nothing immediate to come back to. There wasn’t going to be a team. There wasn’t going to be a season.

And it was because he had failed.
It was a strange feeling.

Not the failure part, the… relief? The nothing? The… dread? It was a something that Tenma had not really felt. Something a bit too complex. Something he held onto and let go of at the same time. Or was muted? There was nothing he could do about the team. And he was pretty sure that he couldn’t do much about being on another planet… or even another time. Maybe Fei or Saru knew more, but, not him!

And he didn’t explain a single thing. Nope. He stood there with a smile half stuck on his face and didn’t explain anything. Not that he could though, he was still making sense of the fairy that came out of his dreams. And the dreams. And the everything.

'YES. THANKS SIR, I WILL DEFINETIVELY KEEP AN EYE ON IT! AND CAREFUL!'

A completely natural response from an ordinary boy, yes.
Still.... That… should have been a pretty big clue. To him not being on Earth at least.
His... companion who had moved into his hair as soon as he decided to answer the best way that he could possible in the situation. Well not lying and just not... not trying to like explainin everything.

The first thing he actually noticed about Arcadia is that… it was actually pretty bright! Colorful! Flowerlike? Was that even a word? He wasn’t sure. Just. It was colorful and at the same time the buildings. They looked like trees, sculpted trees were growing around them and… was it weird that the idea of climbing them seem to really appeal to him? Even if they were people’s houses? And it was noisy, the good kind of noisy where people are busy and active and… happy.

It was a good sort of noise, it was… happy.
Happy was a good word. A city of flowers.
Soccer could… was not happy.

He squeezed the ball between his hands. It was colorful, but, he did see grey as he looked down the side streets. Soccer wasn’t the only thing… sad. In the smaller streets, trash and other stuff littered the sides… and the ground was being overtaken by brown vines. Not all streets, just the tiny ones.

… Nothing had to be sad. Huh. His hands stopped holding onto his soccer ball so hard; there were tiny figures in one of them. Gray… gray like their tiny street, sitting on the eves of worn branches, on the stoops of broken stone. Nothing had to be sad!

‘Hey guys? You go on ahead, there is something I think I need to do!’ He paused for all of a second maximum, 'Thanks, I've got to catch them, bye!'

He waved before dashing off into one of the side streets feeling still that something, but, there was something he could do and so he’d do it. Not that any of the kids, the ones with long faces, knew what to make of this young boy in bright white and blue hurtling towards them, because why would he? As he weaved through people he exclaimed the necessary, 'Excuse me, and, sorry' That came with the occasional startled person near him. Along with a few choice words that he only barely paid attention to, such as 'Brat!' when he got maybe just too underfoot. And so he turned back and yelled as loud as he could, ‘I’ll see you guys later, at the inn right?... RIGHT?!’ Even he right now he couldn’t do much, there was something he could. A smile stretched across his face.

So he took off!

Even if everything was not fine, not at the moment… everything in the moment after said, it would be. It might just be now, but it would still be okay.
At least that is what he felt as he ran head long into a city he didn't really even know, lightened with the now something he had to do.
Naturally, there was only one way this could and would go.