Chapter 3 - Waking Up To A New Life.

Quick notice: From here on in, unless noted, All characters will be speaking in Japanese and is translated to English by me.[br]
Thank you.[br]
SOV.[br]
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Chapter 3-Waking Up To A New Life.[br]
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“GAH!!!” Mikey screamed as he snapped his eye open and sat up, now ten years of age, breathing heavily, only able to see out of one eye. His face was bandaged up, covering his black eye and his extremely deep cut. His chest was also wrapped up, so that the cut on his back was stemmed of the bleeding, and his tail was tied tightly in bandages. He looked around. He was in a blank white room, spotlessly clean, an oak flooring and four red sycamore pillars join the immaculate translucent paper walls, three of the walls having shoji, sliding paper lattice doors. He then looked down, to see that he was sleeping on a thick futon, close to the floor, underneath a cover of silk, patterned with a cherry blossom tree in bloom. Shadows walked by the walls, causing him to look up. One of the shadows stopped outside of a shoji and knocked on the wooden latticing of it. “C-come in…” He nervously replied to the knocking. The shoji slid open, revealing a female echidna, twenty one years of age, a light orange colour, a tuft of hair rolled up and held in place by a lotus flower hairpin. She was wearing a lilac kimono, with a small sakura tree on the top half of the kimono, and a red obi.[br]

“Good morning.” She chorally spoke, walking towards Mikey, holding onto a tray with a bowl of rice and a small wooden cup of water.[br]

“Morning.” He replied to her, eyeing the tray, realising that he was tremendously hungry. “I must ask, where am I?”[br]

“You’re in Edo.” She replied, “You were knocked out for at least three weeks…”[br]

“THREE WEEKS!?” Mikey shouted in shock, “I got to get out of here…” He said to himself as he tried to stand up, but the cuts on his back bit into him and made him wince. “Ow!” Mikey grunted in pain.[br]

“Don’t move, please,” The echidna calmly talked to him, “If you move too much, the scars on your back will become worse.”[br]

“The cuts are going to scar me?” Mikey muttered to her.[br]

“I’m afraid so, and the stab through the tail will cause nerve damage in it.” Hearing that, Mikey sat in silence. “Don’t worry, your eye will be healed in a couple of days,” she tried to console him. All Mikey did was nod and smile a little. “I also heard about what happened on Seclusion Bay.”[br]

“Who told you?” He asked her. The echidna put the tray next to him and smiled at him, looking at him, and scanned him from eye to head.[br]

“Eat something first…” She looked at him, asking for a name.[br]

“Oh, Mikey Prower. Known as “Voltage”.”[br]

“Okay Voltage. I’m Hiroko. Eat something first please,” She instructed him softly whilst walking away. “And put some clothes on.”[br]

“WHY ARE YOU LOOKING YOU PERV!?” Mikey snapped at her. She was giggling behind her hand, finding his reaction hilarious.[br]

“Well, might as well tell you.”[br]

“I already know…” He uttered, “So can you please leave so I can put my clothes on?” He asked Hiroko, pointing towards the shoji.[br]

“Fair enough, seeming as you’re new here,” Hiroko replied, understanding his request and walked out, closing the shoji her.[br]

Mikey sighed, looked at the water, picked it up, and gulped it down gradually until it was bone dry, quenching his thirst. He then took the bowl of rice and hashi, chopsticks, and started to eat the rice in clumps, and despite the size of the bowl, it satisfyingly filled his stomach. He placed the bowl back on the tray, and looked beside it, a set of clothing laid beside it. He slipped on the tabi, split toe socks, which thankfully stretched a little because of the look of the size of them. He then wrapped the kimono around him, which was a sea blue with a phoenix kamon, a family crest, on the chest, then slipped on platform sandals, where a small bar in the sandals placed itself between the split of the tabi. He stood up slowly, so that his back wouldn’t harm him, then walked towards the shoji that Hiroko walked out of. He slid the shoji open and walked out onto a veranda.[br]
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The veranda looked out onto an immaculate garden. Three cherry blossom trees marked the garden. A small stream ran through the middle of the garden underneath a ruby red bridge with a dragon and phoenix on each side, which connected up to white gravel pathways. The gardens was surrounded by flawless bushes, that was still being tended to by a gardener, even though they were perfectly level.[br]

“Good, you’re up and about,” Hiroko spoke with enthusiasm. “Come with me.” She waved her hand to sign him to follow her. Mikey looked at her, confused, but he trailed Hiroko as she walked casually along the veranda and towards another set of shoji, slightly open, with a slight haze wafting through the gap. Hiroko strolled through the shoji, but Mikey stopped outside, unsure what was inside. “Well, come on in Volt,” Hiroko called out from the misty room. Mikey did so.[br]
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He walked into the foggy room, which cleared up as soon as he walked in, and his eye laid upon a fairly large wooden tub filled with steaming water and smelled faintly of lavender.[br]

“Ofuro?” he asked. “A bath?”[br]

“Yes Voltage,” Hiroko replied to him. “You need a bath to relax, and clean your cuts.” Mikey looked at her, clearly not impressed with her not telling him. “Chiro!” Hiroko called out. A extremely light pink echidna, eighteen years of age, wearing a whitish kimono and obi, walked in behind Mikey, nodded at Hiroko and yanked Mikey’s kimono straight off, taking the chest bandages with it, without injuring him. Mikey instantly covered himself in embarrassment.[br]

“HEY, WHAT THE!?!?” He yelled before the rest of the bandages was ripped off of him, revealing his black eye, which was healing pretty quickly. He was then soaked in ice cold water, causing him to shiver quite a lot, but the blood that surrounded his cuts was washed off completely. He was then pushed into the wooden tub, causing the warm water to splash. Mikey rapidly surfaced, shaking the water out of his bangs, before getting scrubbed down by both Hiroko and Chiro, taking great care not to catch his cuts. Mikey’s energy was pretty much sapped out of him, before getting sluiced down with cold water again, sending shivers down his spine. He was then rubbed down with a soft towel and rebandaged, then given a white cotton top and skirt undergarments called juban, then a fresh kimono, this one was a blackish blue colour, with the same phoenix kamon on the chest and a realistic phoenix on the back, tied up with a thick black obi. New tabi and the same sandals were also put on him. He was then given a piece of metal blue fabric with two holes in it.[br]

“Here, put it on,” Chiro requested him. “It’s a bandana. We made it to your preferences.” Mikey took the bandana in the traditional Japanese manner, bowing and taking it with both hands, or in his case, one hand and polymetal glove.[br]

“Arigato, Chiro-kun.” Mikey thanked her, and started to put it on. He slipped his ears through the holes in the bandana, stuffed the rainbow aura bangs into the bandana and tied it tightly. He then walked out of the bathing room and back onto the veranda, where Hiroko was waiting for him.[br]
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“Are you always waiting for me Hiroko-kun?” Mikey questioned her.[br]

“Well, you need someone to get you around here. And I need someone to help me get the shopping with me.” She replied with a smile on her face. “So, let’s get going.” She then started walking and indicated him to follow, and Mikey did as he was told, because he didn’t know what to do. He needed to get back to Mobius, no matter how long it takes. He followed her down the gravel pathway and over the bridge past the statues and through a small wooden gate under an archway, leading to a small village by the sea, all of the civilians in the village, every single one, is an echidna. That was the first thing that Mikey noticed. The second thing he noticed was three samurai roaming around, one with the phoenix kamon, another with a lion and the third with a red X inside a circle. There was shops bustling with activity, one[br]
selling vegetables from gourds to chilli peppers, and fruit from navel oranges to incredibly large watermelons. Another was gutting trout and salmon, and selling it immediately, fresh from the sea. Boats bobbing over the waves, youthful women with paper bags diving underneath the surface without leaving a ripple in the water, then resurfacing a few seconds later with the bags full to the brim with oysters, clams and seaweed, climbing back into the boats and sorting the bag out, before diving back in. Hiroko headed straight towards a fishmongers. Mikey followed, then spied the pier in the corner of his eye.[br]

“Hiroko-kun, may I have a look on the pier please?” Mikey asked politely.[br]

“Course you can, Voltage-sama.” She replied whilst looking at the stall, then asking for a large piece of freshwater salmon. Mikey bowed in appreciation, then strolled over to the starting of the pier, subsequently stopped and looked at everyone. They were all staring at him, the only wolf in all of the village. The samurais glared at him, hands on hilts of the swords, looking like they would enjoy cutting his head off. Mikey bowed to them, and everyone carried on with their everyday activities, some women at the stores bowed back, and the samurai ignored him and took their hands off their swords. He breathed a sigh of relief before walking down the pier. Halfway down the pier, a female echidna rose from the water and clambered into a boat, with a bag in her hands. Mikey took a proper look at her, and realised that it was the same girl from the veranda three weeks ago, just before he blacked out. He looked on, watching her search for pearls in oysters.[br]
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“GAIJIN!” A voice boomed from behind him, causing him to turn around and look up towards to a couple of echidna samurai, not like the other samurai. Both of them was wearing green kimonos, with two bamboo sticks illustrating the back of their kimonos. One of them was blue and had a scar on the right cheek, but it was healed up properly, not what Mikey’s will end up like. The other was at least two heads taller than Mikey, a lighter blue, one red eye and another green.[br]

“What do you think you’re doing here gaijin?” The scarred one spat in Mikey’s face, gripping his hilt of his sword.[br]

“I never wanted to come here…” Mikey started to reply, before being cut off by the multicoloured eyed echidna.[br]

“Shall we send you off then?” They both then drew their large nodachi, at least one and a half metres long swords, and moved into the offensive position. The scarred one slashed at Mikey’s head, but Mikey instinctively moved his head back, the sword catching the bandages on his face, slicing the bandages clean off, revealing the healing black eye and deep cut.[br]

“If I get caught by that sword, I’m as good as dead!” He thought to himself, scared. Then he went deep into his memory banks, remembering his tae-kwon-do training, how he can disarm such an opponent. The scarred one brought his sword down from over his head. Mikey span around to the left, causing the sword to jam itself into the piers wooden planking. “Perfect!” Mikey thought as the scarred one tried to pull the sword out of the pier. He raised his foot and span a full three-sixty, before kicking the echidna square in the chest with considerable force, making him lose his grip on the sword and flying into the water. Mikey fell backwards onto his back, grunting in pain.[br]

“You’ll pay for that!” The multicoloured eyed echidna growled at him, raising the sword and brought it back down towards Mikey, but the sword was yanked out of his hands. He then turned around to see a slightly smaller echidna, blood red with small black lines on his dreadlocks, and amethyst purple eyes. And was wearing a lava red kimono, with the same phoenix kamon, with a oak brown obi around his waist. “Taka-sama! Accept our humblest apologies.” He bowed and ran off, leaving the scarred echidna swimming to the shore and following him quickly.[br]

“Are you okay, gaijin-san?” The echidna known as Taka asked, dropping the sword beside him and helping Mikey up. Mikey didn’t look impressed by the name gaijin.[br]

“I’m fine, but I prefer not being called a foreigner or a barbarian… I’m Voltage,” he replied and brushed himself off.[br]

“Oh yes, the wolf who my superior saved. I’m Taka. Welcome to Edo,” he proclaimed to Mikey.[br]

“Konnichiwa Voltage-sama.” A feminine voice came from behind Taka. Taka stepped out of the way to reveal the same girl who was swimming for the pearls. “My name is Akiko.” She told Mikey whilst bowing and smiling. At least he now knows her name.[br]

“Voltage-sama, you do realise that I must tell my superior about this. He will be very pleased with what you did, but we‘ll have to meet him on that island.” Taka mentioned to Mikey, and pointed to a small village on an island. “We shall meet your savior there.” Finally, Mikey will probably see what Taka-sama’s superior is like.

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