Just Dropping By?

Ururu Kyuuei

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'Hikaru, are you getting any of this?' Whisper into the network for the millionth time.

Still no response. We'd expected it and had taken precautions but it was still unnerving.

Stars swam around me like a nightmarish genjutsu from sensei. Given that he was no longer around and could be counted on to make my life hell, I dismissed him from my mind. Instead, I focused on the visuals.

Each time a cluster of colored starlight passed by, the tube of black 'stuff' rippled like something alive. How I could see something darker than black on top of black, I have no clue. But this I could feel with all my sense and my shinobi intuition. Whatever it was, it was bad news and I had no idea how I could escape it much less protect myself should attack come. Given that I had been stuck in this hole in reality for nearly an hour, I was less scared and more bored.

What does one do when they've somehow managed to escape an entire multiverse?

That had been my attempt. Release enough anti-omni in one location to punch a hole in existence and hope I'd land back in my homeland but, this was nothing like what I experience when getting sucked into the Omniverse. It wasn't even close.

Another flicker of light flashes up ahead, swirling around like a school of confused, drugged up, blind, addled fish. Burning bright, and stronger than before, the next ring the flashes around me sparks around me raising every hair on my head. The colors are so vivid now; each individual point is as clear as day. My eyes can barely handle them, yet there's still more coming at me faster than I can even follow.

Whiteness takes me in the span of a single breath and then resolves into blue, and a sudden sensation of gravity returns. Oh shit! What happened? Where am I?!

A blast of white light explodes across the darkness behind me and a split second later, another wave hits me from the side.

'Ururu! I'm here!' A panicked thought screams in my mental ear. The voice of Hikaru, my best friend, and persona. With it comes a wave of relief the sensation of memories become cognizant structure told me that the Network seemingly reinstated itself. 'What the hell is this?!' She then adds in a screech. It's a thought reiterated by the other personas who seem to be waking up as well in my headspace.

My throat tightens as a tidal wave of force batters at me and more light screams at me in color rather than sound.

I don't know if we're being attacked or not. This isn't like anything I've ever experienced. It almost reminds me of the primary principles of Space-Time Ninjutsu. Like the reason why you don't stick living things in a storage seal. They get lost sometimes if they aren't killed outright. Whatever it-

My stomach drops out as gravity seems to shift again, blue light washing around me again and then green and...!

WERE THOSE A FLOCK OF BIRDS?!

Trees above me sky below me. Wind whips past my ears from my back. Okay back to basics, remember that sky diving course sensei forced us to take. Flatten your body to increase drag, if you're upside down, reduce it on one side to go vertical and... THERE!

The world reorients around me revealing exactly what potentially lot of ground I'm falling towards. For probably the second time I know what it's like to be born into Maito family after they figured out how to land from any height... Ooo, okay, those damn big trees. That I need. And there's a town.

Perfect.

I focus my chakra on my body, molding it into the shape best suited for absorbing impacts and keeping my body in one conceptual whole. I'll need to be able to move quickly and without hesitation.

Just as I hit the first tree, my fingers cut into the trunk like a knife to canvas. I've got about half a second to brace myself for impact and then I'm through. More branches come my way as the side tree's trunk starts to exploding under my fingers, finally slowing my descent to something more reasonable than, 'Oh sage I'm going to die!'

As I pass over a large branch, I catch a glimpse of my surroundings.

"Shinigami take me. Where the hell did I end up?"

Greens and browns ran everywhere through the world as vines, trees, plants, grasses, moss, and everything else I could think of grew and spread and intertwined with each other to form an unending forest.

It was beautiful. Unbelievably so, but more importantly, it was a perfect place for an ambush.

Maybe I'm being paranoid again. That's a thing, right?

'Sometimes' Hikaru chimes in my head.

Snorting to ourselves, I slowly work my way over to a larger branch that I can support my weight and Hikaru's. Planting my feet firmly so I wouldn't fall. This wasn't the Omniverse and I couldn't completely trust my abilities hadn't been affected by the change in venue. Though they did feel more responsive than before. My chakra felt closer to what it had been before this whole adventure first started.

I form the first hand seal one of my favored techniques, and then flash through several more, molding my chakra once more. With the last seal, I try and draw out a remote seeing technique.

Only it didn't take.

Crap. I'm not even sure if I can do that anymore or maybe for now.

'What's wrong?'

'Remote viewing isn't working.'

'We could try me.'

'Not risking it yet,' I send with my best mental glare, 'We'll test clones later with a disposable persona before we try anything with you.'

'For now.' Hikaru chirps and I get a sense of a half-smile from her.

Rolling my eyes, I jump at an angle, sending myself hurtling forward through the canopy on a path to a large more distant wooden behemoth some ten meters away. Then again working myself higher, up so I could get a bead on the town earlier. It had been distant, possibly a hundred miles or so, but well within a Shinobi's range of tree skipping over the course of a day or two.

And it seemed like the most likely location for a proper Village in a world that looked like the main population lived in trees.

I launch myself off another trunk, gaining altitude before landing once more on a canopy branch. Another takes me up into a living tower of vines that had fattened up enough to be trees in their right. Vines like these were more often native to jungles. So not like Fire Country and Konoha.

Still, it's useful.

Three kicks send me flying upward, bouncing off the interior of the vine borne structure until even it starts shrinking away under the sky, allowing me to breach the canopy.

The world is filled with the sounds of birds, the wind, the rustle of leaves, and the occasional caw from a crow as they flew past me. The sun was just starting its descent, but the air still held the warmth of a summer's afternoon. It would be cool soon enough. I'd be glad for my cloak, though I suspected I might need it. Fingers crossed I was wrong, but I doubted I'd be able to make myself comfortable without one. Then again I wouldn't be comfortable I found myself a bed and some answers as to where the hell I'm at.

Spotting a rather large branch in the distance. I throw myself off of my perch and head towards the horizon.

After what seems hours, of repeatedly climbing tall trees to plot my course towards a vague location, the trees open up into a valley and a small town.

"Huh," I grunt. I hadn't expected to find civilization this soon.
 

Ururu Kyuuei

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It takes me a moment to find a safe and unobtrusive spot to land myself. Three or four hops and a quiet thud saw me on the inside wall of the town. A wood and stone building in front of a large tree was my only real option for concealment if I needed it. I was hoping to find someone who could tell me where the hell I'm, but I wasn't going to do so blindly.

I pulled up my hood and slinked my way into a back alleyway to watch the street from the shadows. Laying low, I peered out and around the corner. A few people walked by, some men and women in robes, others in clothes that appeared to be modern to industrialized worlds. I couldn't see any uniforms, and I wasn't about to stick out like a sore thumb by asking anyone. I didn't want to risk getting arrested. I had no idea what kind of laws they had here and how strict the law enforcement agencies were.

Throngs of people passed left and right. I didn't have time to wait for the perfect opportunity, so I slipped out the other side of my hiding place.

No one seemed to pay me any attention.

A quick glance at my surroundings showed me that I hadn't been followed or noticed by the locals. I'm probably fine for now.

I kept my eyes observing both the people and the land around me.

Calling it Civilization may have been a mistake on my part.

My first impression of this village was that it looked like something out of a fantasy movie set. Even my Konoha standards it looked like an odd mix of fantasy and first-generation Hashirama architecture. I could almost picture a scene of fox girls and kappa walking along the streets of a medieval Fire Country capital. Or maybe a Grass Country settlement?

But there were differences.

'Like this is real and not one of Todoreki's novels?' Hikaru offered.

'Hah as if.' I barked back in my head and turned my focus to reality.

In the center of town, a large tree had been carved up into the shape of a dragon’s head with two smaller dragons at its feet. It stood taller than three stories and had to be close to fifty meters across.

And then the strangest thing happened.

I heard an old woman's voice.

"You're late." She sounded annoyed. "I thought you said you were coming?"

I turned in her direction, not sure why she'd called out to me. She looked older than she sounded. Her skin was like leather sanded with gravel. It was only matched by coal-black eyes. There was also something warm about her like she had lovingly raised a hundred grandkids. With my luck, she was probably a serial killer.

She was wearing what was obviously a dress of some sort, but it was loose enough that it hung off of her body like a sack. It was made of thin strips of cloth with long sleeves and was tied together with a cord.

I shake my head. "Sorry I don't know what you're talking about."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she gave me a hard look. "Well, you should. You're supposed to be my apprentice. Where have you been all day?"

She sounded so certain that I was whoever she thought was. "Ma'am I've never been to this town in my life, I don't even know its name, much less yours."

The woman frowned again. "Tolerei. This town is known as Tolerei. And who are you calling 'ma'am'?"

I'm about to answer when another voice interrupted us.

"Mare, who's that girl over there?" The second person was a young man who looked about what my chronological age would have been. He wore a simple robe and carried a staff that looked like a walking stick. His hair was white and he had a full beard.

"She's ma apprentice but she's not right in the head, keeps saying she's never seen me before."

Shit. I'm busted.

The man snorts, "Mare, your apprentice is right behind you," He says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "This girl here ain't your Clementine."

Clementine? Who the hell is that? I ask myself.

He turns around and looks at me, and mouths 'Let's go' right when the old woman turns around to look at a rather embarrassed girl who only had a passing resemblance to me.

I follow the man.

I'm led through the crowd of people until we reach the edge of the village where it seemed more modern.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

The man just shrugs and points his staff to a small park with a few benches and what looks like several old men playing Go. Just past that is what looks like a large general store and a cafe of sorts.

A sign hangs above the door, reading: 《Tolerei General Store & Cafe》

He leads me to it and I can't see any way to escape him without creating a ruckus. Plus I'm not getting any dangerous vibes off of him either, so for the moment, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

A bell rings as we enter and a man at the register looks up and asks, "What was the matter with Mare?"

"Nothing. I'll catch up to you later, I gotta talk to someone first. Tell me if anything happens while I'm gone."

"Sure hoss."

"Is there any space free in the cafe?"

"Plenty, just don't mind the dog."

He grunts and I'm led up the stairs to a counter. Attached to is a bar with more liquor than I'd have expected to see. Not oodles like a Coruscant bar, but close enough. The floors are cobblestone, the tables are carved wood, and the ceilings are a decently well-done mosaic you expect to see in some Tea country ruins.

There's a waitress at the front desk, but she doesn't look very busy. She has long black hair pulled back into pigtails that match her eyes. "How was Mare, Jack?"

"Fine. I'll tell you about it later, got a traveler I need to talk to for now."

"Okay, then. Can I get you two something?"

"Coffee, Jack?"

He grunts ou an affirmative. Or at least it sounds like it. He could just be telling her to fuck off but given her reaction, this seems to be a relatively common occurrence.

I shake my head. "Tea please."

She nods and goes to her duties and the now named Jack sits me at a table.

I try to think of what I could possibly say to this guy, but nothing comes to me. Finally, he speaks. "So what brings you here?"

There's a lot of ways I can answer but at the moment, I saw, "Just dropping by."

Jack laughs grimly before reply, "Sure, I saw you dropping by like a silver streak in the sky. You're not from around here."

Wincing I nod. "Something like that. Where exactly am I?" I ask carefully.

He chuckles again before answering, "Tolerei."

I level a flat look at him. "I already know that. That Mare lady mentioned it."

He shrugs, "Well she's right."

He's purposely trying to avoid my question. Why? "Where is Tolerei?"

"On the world Erde Nona."

I raise an eyebrow, "And that is?"

Graveling he replies. "Erde Nona? It's a planet in the Crossroads."

"I've never heard of it," I admit.

"It isn't that big of a deal, really. It's just one name of the known Universe." He says as it isn't something totally profound.

Rustlings of a skirt and the clatter of a plate or three signal the waitress coming with our order, forstalling the conversation for a moment. A tea set is quickly deposited on the table as well as a large cup and vase filled with what smells like coffee for Jack.

"Thank you," I say while examining my own saucer with a cup of tea on it along with what looks like two cookies.

She smiles prettily. "Anything else I can get you two dears?"

Jack plucks his mug of coffee and smells it, and sighs. "Nah, we should be good Thala."

The waitress flushes and little, nods, and leaves, leaving us to sip out the drinks and wait to break the awkward silence.

After a few moments, Jack asks, "Why did you come to Tolerei?"

"I didn't come here intentionally."

"Ah, you are one of those," He says philosophically, the effect seems to be lost in the coffee as he takes a sip. "There are two kinds of people who come to Crossroad, those who come in search of something and those who are escaping something."

Seeing where this is going raise my tea to my lips, and sip softly. It's lightly sweet, with a floral scent to it. Almost like jasmine. Setting the cup down, I ready my answer. "Escape. The last place was Sage forsaken place that would never find peace," I say levely. A calm which I didn't feel.

Jack nods and hums into his coffee. "While don't know what sage you are referring to, I get the sentiment." A multitudinous clink echoes off the table, drawing my eyes away from him to an off-white sack of what sounded like coins. "You will want to go to the old capital, Arcadia. It's about three hundred kilometers from here due northeast. This should keep you hail and hearty."

Rule one of being a Shinobi never undervalue a resource. "Are you sure?"

He nods and smiles as he replies, "We keep a fund in the village for travelers like you. You won't put anyone out of dinner for it"

I accept it, pulling into my duster. "Thank you then, but what's at the old Capital?"

"Other travelers like you."

Oh. I had hoped escaping Crossroads was just an analogy. That I'd somehow misunderstood him. "Ones who fall from the sky?"

"Sometimes. Though few survive the kind of fall you did."

My heart sunk. Welp that settled it. I was in another world just like the last. There were no other options left to me.

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No, we have a simple life here," He said, looking deep into his coffee as if held the secrets of the universe. Maybe it did. "Unless you'd like to be Mare's apprentice, I'm sure Clementine wouldn't mind!" He chuckled

"Sure," I said completely honestly. Not really.

He froze, actually froze. "You're springing an old codger like me aren't you?"

My eyes gleamed at him. While I didn't know what he meant exactly, I had a decent idea. "Maybe. It was funny wasn't it?"

He let out a sigh of relief and shook his head, chuckling again. "Yeah, it was though I can't stand the idea of ol Clementine having a compatriot running amok across Tolerei. She's as bad as the orange-wearing youngin fellow who came through last summer."

Huh, so it happens that often?

I finish off my tea and pour some more. "Anything else I should know?"

"Yeah."
 

Ururu Kyuuei

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Crossroads. Odd name for a place but, to each their own.

That thought had been rolling in my head even as I made my first blog posting as we crossed the jungle area at a speed that was slow and sedate compared to what I used to be able to achieve, but a good time all things considered. It was only when I finished my post that I spotted the remains of something a bit more important than my initial findings of this world.

And it wasn't how my chakra was acting oddly helpful.

That wasn't what concerned me. No, it was the giant dead mosquito that had lost its back on, spilling what looks like the blood volume of one or two humans. Plus the corpse, and what looked very much like a science fiction spaceship behind them. All of them rested on the dug-out ground of an impact site. Or what looked like one.

I spent enough time on Coruscant to become familiar with them, even tried dissecting them since their use was lost. Simply put, expensive space travel machines are useless when landlocked to a planet with no access to space... this impact was showing me two things. One its resemblance to meteor impacts meant it was going fast, faster than any ship should in the atmosphere. Two, that the ship survived meant it was sturdy and the pilot survived to crawl out only to be killed by the world's biggest mosquito.

Guess that meant it was salvage right? Right.

I turned to Hikaru who still getting used to having a normal human body again, and managing my recording remoting through her connection to the 'Medium', and asked, "Up for a little salvage?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. To which I just shrugged. "Well, we are Shinobi. I figured you would want to help."

Hikaru smiled and nodded. "Yes, I suppose I can."

We walked over to the wreckage and started digging. It was a mess, to say the least. While the hull of the ship was mostly intact, the innards were another story. Metal, plastics, and ceramics were all wrenched and distorted as if in a wave reality accidentally forgot it was supposed to keep these bits contiguous. Still, the basic structure was there and I could piece together purposes. It was mostly intact and made of something like metal that reminded me of the alloys the Empire used only there was a variation that reminded me of fifth-generation composite I dug up in an Ootsutsuki cult outpost. The Empire used something similar as well. Subtle tones and differences in it hinted and different manufacturing processes though.

The insides were kind of what I expected, utilitarian, simple, everything was as attached to the hull as possible, a lot of things were designed to fold out, or compress. The issue was the landing had caused all these things to cascade outward like a demented waterfall of death. Whatever had been first to come out had been crushed under the weight of what came after.

Still, I was impressed out how much I could make out was still mostly together. It spoke to the designers, provided the impact was as bad as it looked.

We dug around until we found what I suspected was the engine core, and it was a bit larger than my head and unlike everything else inside, it showed absolutely no sign of any damage. Instead, it was silently floating in a spheroidal room giving off faintly black light. Not like UV, but like that seemed too dark and invert spectrum anything that was around it. Every now and then a spark of it like lightning would flash around its surface.

The weight of Hikaru's arm fell around my shoulder, giving me a slight squeeze. "No." She said firmly

"Hmm?" I ask and I'm rewarded with her snorting.

"You made me remind you when you're about to get in over your head."

"It's a ship, how over my head can I get?"

"Last I checked you're not a science fiction engineer."

I sighed and tried to explain. "It's an honest to goodness space ship able to get into space"

"You're-no, we are hardly qualified."

I frowned and poked a portion of the wall that was hanging with wires almost spilling out. "We can learn."

"And we'll blow ourselves up." As if to reiterate her point, the same panel gave way completely, taking with its wires and chunk of something solid. The ball that had been floating in the center of the room fell with a clap. "My point explains itself," Hikaru added smugly

I roll my eyes. "We'll seal it up and study it before trying to rebuild it."

She shook her head and shrugged in defeat. "Only if we keep a spare body to remote into it."

A grin tugged at my lips. "Sounds like a plan."

We spent some time examining the remains, looking for useful parts or clues on what happened. We didn't find much aside from the fact that it had crashed on a planet. There was nothing to tell us why, nor where it was headed. Nothing to suggest how the sphere was even powered. All the computers were d-e-d dead.

Finally, Hikaru suggested, "Let's see if this thing is self-repairing."

I looked over at her and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"If this ship has survived being wrecked then there might be a way to repair. If I had super sciency tech, and I was making ships for small crews, I'd design it to self-repair.."

I nodded, but I didn't precisely agree. "That makes sense If it's within their capabilities and they aren't cutting corners.."

But she just shrugged and pulled a few things out of the wreckage, a collection of strange components. Things that were mostly lying around but intact enough to be identifiable. "These seem important. Maybe we can use them for parts to get the computer running find my repair systems.'

"If you can find it," I say with a half-smirk and follow her through the mess that likely leads to the cockpit. The door was still mostly there, so I was hoping we could figure out how it worked. If it worked, and how much effort it would take on our part to get somewhat functional.

Hikaru had already started working on the control panel by the time I squeezed through a rather bloody half-pried open pressure door. Some of the screens were flickering in and out but other than that, surprisingly, there was less damage in here than there had been everywhere else. For her part, Hikaru was busy holding a circuit board in place as it connected a wire to a power source and a monitor screen.

"How's is it?" I ask, knowing that as far as things go even light damage meant a time sink. I was already rethinking my hopes of sealing it and repairing it later down the road.

Sighing, I settled into helping her try and piece something together that we had no idea did what.

This was going to take a while just to inventory.
 
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