Chapter 15: Chapter 15 Return

After some time passed, Shizu awoke from her sleep and as her eyes began to open. She was startled awake by the sight of Azi's drooling face nestled into her chest. While she would usually pulverize any man that would be so intimate with her, she remembered that she took up Azi's offered to hug him, so she instead decided to indulge in Azi's his antics. She began petting Azi's head and ran her hand over his disheveled black hair, as she was then about to feel his cheeks with her hand. Her actions were halted as she heard a familiar voice.

Kajima: "Shizu, I know you are still sad but I need to talk.......?" 

With the last part of Kajima's words trailing off as he was stepping into Shizu's tent, he then began to backpedal out of the tent at top speed while telling Shizu.

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

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

Shizu: "Wait! You misunderstand!"

As Shizu had suddenly let go of Azi, and with his head no longer having any support, Azi jolted awake as his head impacted the hard surface of the mat he was sleeping on.

Azi: "Ouch, ugh is it morning already? *Wipes his eyes with his hand* And Shizu, try to be gentler when you are grasping someone's head."

Kajima who turned to respond to Shizu was instead taken aback by the familiar voice of his believed to be dead companion and in his surprise called out for the Apothecary and Thaumaturge.

Kajima: "Yashimu bring the Apothecary and Thaumaturge the boy is awake, he is ALIVE!!"

Kajima's bellow was heard by everyone who were performing their midday duties in the temporary camp. They were also taken aback by Kajima's statement as they all saw how lifeless Azi's body was and knew that the observation of the trained apothecary and thaumaturge were very accurate. If the patient was declared dead by both the apothecary and thaumaturge then the patient was believed to be dead, the thought of the boy being alive befuddled everyone's mind.

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. The Thaumaturge then gathered white motes of light in 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 were 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 of Azi's body the Thaumaturge stated.

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

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

Apothecary: " Physical he is fine, only slight malnutrition due to a lack of food and there is evidence of strain on his body from the battle that took place."

Thaumaturge: "Spiritual 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 when he was unconscious, so it seems he is on the road to recovery. Tell me, what did you do while he was unconscious."

Shizu: *With a red face* "Well I was hugging him, I thought that if I kept him warm, he would wake up on his own."

Thaumaturge: "I suppose your guess was correct, but why are you blushing?"

Shizu: "No reason!"

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

Shizu: "Brother, what is our next step?"

Yashimu: "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."

You are reading story Thy Travels Through Tales at novel35.com

During the investigation, all teams followed a standard practice when disposing of monsters or animals. After killing a monster and animal, it is to be disassembled and stored away for later acquisition.

Yashimu: "Shizu, you will lead the team heading back to the village with our current batch and I will stay to move the remaining."

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

Yashimu nodded at his sister and the looked at the tent Azi was in. 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 die. He could already envision his father's face of anger as he scolded him for giving him a false report, especially went 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 and Yashimu took the Apothecary, Thaumaturge, and the remaining soldiers with him. Azi was to lay on a stretcher for the trip back to the village due to how he was still weak from the battle and had not eaten any food for the last half day. 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 skeptical of how Azi was able to wake up 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 departure, both parties set off just after 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 and less dangerous medicinal herbs and where they could be found. Shizu and the soldiers looked at the boy in the stretcher and the old man bantering and chatting about a variety of topics. The sight gave them the idea that Azi and Kajima were respectively a child and parent out on a trip. This cause a slight chuckle from each soldier as the sight of 2 meter man patting the head of a boy laying on a stretcher was funny to see. This was due to Kajima's history and previous reputation of a battle harden veteran of multiple wars. The chuckling only got harder to contain as Shizu revealed to them the actual age of Azi which got a surprised look out of them which then turned to laughter that began to come from their mouths.

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

Shizu: "Kajima, take Azi home with you. I will join you after I talk with my father."

Kajima: "Sure thing little lass. See you later. Come Azi, climb on my back."

Azi: "Sure thing."

Azi, with the help of 2 soldiers, was able to a get onto Kajima's back in a piggyback position.

Azi: *Waving goodbye while stating* "I'll see you later Shizu."

Shizu: "*Waving back stating* Get some rest and prepare yourself, I want to give you a lecture as well. Those that don't follow orders have to take responsibilities for their mistakes"

Shizu's words had made Azi remember 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, Azi knew that he had disobeyed the commands of the leader of their party during the investigation. With this thought in his mind, he turns is head away as he tried to pretend to sleep to make it look as if he did not hear what she said.

Shizu: "*Not noticing Azi's action, she turned around in the opposite direction of Azi and Kajima to call out* "Soldiers, with me!"

Shizu led the soldiers back to the barracks and soon meet with Ozen in the village chief's house. She then had a conversation with Ozen about the results of the investigate and what happened to Azi. While this was occurring, Kajima was carrying Azi on his back as they went back and forth about different topics. 

Azi took a mental note of all the important places he saw while on the way back to Kajima's residence. His attention was then caught by the sight of a group of village children as they ran by the two as they were playing a game of tag. Azi smiled at the sight and remembered a time when he was that young. It was a simpler time, one where he could run and play all day and be able to talk so carefree with the people he could consider friends. For a brief moment, he reminisced about his later life after his childhood which was uncomfortable for him as he felt that he never made any real friends during that period in his life. The friends he made as a kid left him as some moved away and the rest he never saw again as he had to change schools at one point, this was also compounded by how his parents taught him 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 potential friends.

To prove his parents wrong, or to more spite his parent's teachings, he chooses to do the opposite and acted very friendly towards others. Azi would try to act mature and would sometimes hide his emotions under a smile to not make anyone feel offended or troubled. Over time he did make friends again but as he later found out while being fired from his job, he realized that friends will always leave you if you are of no use to them and if you ever met them again, they would not always try to reconnect.

Azi then thought of Shizu and feel happy that he was able to make a friend again, but he felt a sense of loss as he knew that one day, she might leave him should he be not useful to her. This was supported as he was a mere peasant in this world while she was aa ordain knight of Kujyuri. Azi faced formed into a small sad smile as 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. He had passed out 3 times in the last 2 days, which was very abnormal. Kajima was about to tell Azi another topic of information but hear a soft snoring coming from Azi whose face was close to his ear. Chuckling, Kajima carefully carried Azi through the village to his home.

 

 

You can find story with these keywords: Thy Travels Through Tales, Read Thy Travels Through Tales, Thy Travels Through Tales novel, Thy Travels Through Tales book, Thy Travels Through Tales story, Thy Travels Through Tales full, Thy Travels Through Tales Latest Chapter