112 5.1 A New Leap, A New Era, A New Dimension, A New Adventure Awaits

The blue light that had integrated around my body in my past Leap had now transformed itself into another body, and into another era. I had no idea where I am and which body I had transmigrated to. The surroundings around me, seem abit off right now.

I could feel the unforgiving cold and hard ground beneath me as I slowly opened up my eyes and get accustomed to the surroundings. However, a dull thumping throb in my head makes me hard to sense my surroundings well, as my eyes tried to focus on the almost greyed out environment.

The ground was grey and it was covered with something frosty, cold and wet, and it looked grey as well to me. Snowflakes were slowly descending from the sky and were covering where I was lying down right now.

A scent of smouldering wood was around me, and muffled footsteps, as well as hoofs on the snow, slowly made me realise that I was somehow been lying face down on the snowy ground for some time.

The snow that fell around me was not purely white but was mixed with the ashes that had slowly floated down from the sky from the nearby smouldering fires that were around me.

I spat out a mix of coagulated blood with some dirt, snow and ashes from my mouth and my throat was dry from being lying down on the ground for God knows how long.

I tried to lift up my body from the lying position and tried to sit up and visualise my surroundings. I looked at my hands and discovered that it was almost child-like. It was not almost child-like but it DEFINITELY belongs to a child!

"Oh, Boy...!Oh, Boy...! Oh, Boy...! What kind of era am I in and what kind of mess I'm going to face right now?!" I looked at my hands and found that it was covered with a fingerless cotton glove that was made from some kind of rough material. It was a child's hand for God sake!

I glanced at my clothes and found that I was sort of shrouded with a reddish coloured soft kind of material, and it was a one piece type and my waist had a sort of tassel tied to it that served as a belt.

I looked down further and found that I was wearing a type of leather sandals with white ankle socks and there was a leather strap that wound around my ankle to secure the sandals.

I looked at my feet and there it was small child-like dainty feet. I suddenly grabbed my crotch and found that I still had my nuggets and my little soldier in the middle of my legs. It was protected with a kind of diaper type of underwear. Good, I thought to myself. At least I'm not some kind of small girl in this era. Phew!

I was unable to sit up but however, managed to lie slightly on my sides as I try to view my surroundings as it looked kind of strange at the moment. The place that I had lain down was actually a half-burnt house, with small flickers of fire still burning at some places and there was some smouldering of fires elsewhere too. Broken furniture was strewn across the floor and everything was in disarray.

As my eyes were able to focus, I saw that I was in the midst of a burnt out kind of settlement and there were some silhouettes of people walking around a path while some were riding ponies that seemed too large to be called one at the moment.

"Uurrgghh... Max! Where did you transmigrate me into, and why made me a small child, so hopeless and useless at this moment! Gawd... What am I supposed to do right now?"

I lamented to myself that I had regrettably transmigrated into a body of a child which I think, had little or of no use at this moment. With such a glum surrounding, I could feel the tightening vice of a foreboding sense around me. It was so heartbreaking and I nearly broke down in despair.

As I was lying in my sides and contemplating my already not improving situation around me, a sound of hoofs approaches and stopped a few feet from me. I looked at the front legs of the animal that had stopped before me and found that thick fur was covering it.

Got to be a pony, I thought. I scanned my eyes upwards and saw the silhouette of a large person riding on it. Since the sun was shining at the back of this person, all I could do was cover part of my eyes with one hand and squinted through.

"Where am I and what's this place? Was there a war before or some sort of pillage that had happened?"

I asked the person on the pony and he was unmoving from my words. But as soon as my words (English) came out from my lips, it sounded Japanese. Oh... Here we go again, I'm in Japan again but this seemed rather off in terms of era and dimension.

The pony the person was riding on gave a short neigh, and there was some cold air emitted from its snout and mouth as it pranced back and forth a bit a few feet away from me.

I was afraid that if the person doesn't control the animal well, it would trample on my poor legs and body!

A moment later, a large burly person dismounted from the pony and walked to me and gave me a slight kick over scrawny legs. "Ouch! Dammit, man! What are you trying to do?" I shouted as I grimaced my face as the kick happened to land on my shin and quickly rubbed at the affected area.

The burly man placed his hands on his knees as he bent over to take a closer look at me. He peered at me from head and to toe and growled," Stand up quickly and get up on the mount or would you like me to throw you over it instead?"

His voice sounded low and growled as though he was chewing some kind of cud in his mouth. He was wearing a helmet that protected his nape and sides of his face.

A black and red mask covered his face, leaving a small slot for the eyes, nose and mouth. A complete set of Samurai warrior set adorned his body, arms and thighs and he looked as if he had been through many battles in his life as a Samurai.

Two sets of katanas with a black sheath and golden oval handguards were hanging on his right waist while a kurisagama made from a sort of bone and a black handle with an attached chain was fixed on his left waist.

"What do you want from me? And who are you?!" I shouted to him to gritted teeth.

"Come with me, if you want to live, you think you have a choice right now? There are no survivors here in this pillaged village and sooner or later you would die of thirst and hunger unless you become a vulture and start tearing at carcasses around you!"

I looked around and I focused on those clumps of figures that were scattered along the path with some arrows that protrudes from it. It seems there was no one alive in this small village after it was pillaged by some bandits or some persons who benefitted from their heinous crimes earlier. Whatever it is, it seems that sooner or later I have to trudge on myself out from here as this place would soon be forgotten.

"Alright, I'd come along with you. It seems I do not have a choice right now. Please take good care of me." I outstretched my left hand and the burly man suddenly scooped me up and placed me in the saddle of the pony. He then mounted with me riding on his front as he flicked the reins of the pony and advanced.

It seems he wasn't alone and there were some companions with him, wearing the same outfit and carrying the same weapons on their sides. I noticed that his pony was armoured well to deflect arrows from archers. His other companions were carrying a black elongated flag with a red "X" in the middle and were slowly advancing as they peered on their left and right of the burnt, smouldering houses looking for any signs of life.

As they slowly approached the edge of the settlement, it seems that they only found a lone survivor, and that was me. "Hiko-sama, what are you going to do with that kid you found? Are you going to turn him over to the Mayor or you had better plans?"

"I don't think I would turn him to the Mayor, it would do no good for this kid, as you know it as well too, Miroku-san. There is no reward and I don't think the Mayor's officials would fuss about with this unknown kid after all, right?"

"Haizz... I think you're right, Hiko-sama. At least, this kid would be a servant for the household. Nothing more, but at least he could still survive until his ripe age."

"I see potential in him, Miroku-san. If he is able to survive the ordeal that the whole village had gone through, there must be a miracle that kept this kid alive. Let's report that there are no survivors in the village that had been pillaged. The rest of you hear me, there are no survivors in the village and no one had seen me with this child, do you understand me? "

"Yes, we all hear you, Hiko-sama." chorused the men in the ponies as well as the rest of the Samurai on foot.

Later I learnt that the village was earlier pillaged by bandits due to the worsening weather, and the bandits had to survive somehow and had been targeting the small village for some time.

Since it was not armed with any soldiers, it took some time before it was totally overrun. The men of the villages were killed, and the women were carried off by the bandits by a wagon, bound and gagged.

The children were either killed off or simply left to die in the freezing weather. I was the only one that survived after being left half submerged in the snow of a half-burnt house that once belonged to a person named Himeko. Don't you find it a bit cruel?!

Later I learnt that I was an adopted son of Himeko, a childless spinster who had been living all her life here in this village and worked as a tailor to serve the community. Her only means of livelihood had been destroyed in a glimpse of a second the moment the village had been pillaged.

All her precious bundles of cloth and embroideries had been taken away and Himeko's fate was sealed from the day she was gagged and bundled in the wagon with the rest of the women. Only God knows what happens to Himeko since Mr Director doesn't indicate any further episodes about her at all.

By the way, Mr Director, would you be so kind as to put a few gold coins or a bundle of silvers with me next time so at least I have a proper start in this new series? I've truly got nothing now and it's really pathetic, you know!

The group of Samurai on both foot and ponies soon trudged on slowly on the winding path and reached a small clearing some 3 hours later. We stopped and the burly man named Hiko-sama scooped me and dropped me on my feet. There was a flowing stream nearby and soon the group of Samurai made camp.

One of them made a small fire soon to warm ourselves as dusk was approaching soon. The ponies were tied up together and were fed with some hay that was carried on its back. I counted a total of 5 Samurai warriors in the group and I asked them what I could do to help and I was handed a small axe to help chop some deadwood and branches to keep the fire roaring through the night.

I went off a short distance away and chopped at some deadwood from some trunks that had toppled to the ground. I chopped away and cleared the small twigs from the trunk. After I had made a pile of twigs, smaller branches and trunks in 3 separate groups, I took 2 pieces of twine and tied both ends of it to 2 pieces of stick. I then laid the two sticks that had been tied to the twine and dumped the twigs and small branches on it. I took the two sticks and bundled the wood together like as if I'm carrying a shopping bag.

"You see, this kid got potential. He got brains by the way he carried those wood to us instead of carrying them bit by bit in his arms. Hey kid, come here after you're done. Tell me about yourself!"

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The burly man, named Hiko-sama called me over once I had carried the wood over to the fireplace. I went to him and bowed slightly.

"Hiko-sama, thank you for rescuing me from that village. I am called Himura Kenshin and I do not have a recollection of my living parents or any other siblings at all. I am an adopted son of Himeko-sama, a childless spinster whose main livelihood was tailoring and embroidery and I had been living with her since I was three years old."

"Himaru-kun, how old are you and which year are you born? You don't seem to be quite shabby in terms of your kimono you are in."

"Hiko-sama, as far as I recalled, I was born on June 20th, 1849 and I am 11 years old now. I was also self-taught at home by my mother, in Hiragana and Kanji and was instilled with some herbal medicinal knowledge by an elderly woman called Kaede-sama from that village."

"So you were able to make some medicinal herb pastes and pills as and when needed? Very good for you to have that kind of understanding, Himaru-kun."

"Thank you Hiko-sama, I was also taught the basics of forging and blacksmithing as well and able to forge simple tools and repair weapons if need be. But it was a simple knowledge and the work over the furnace was hard."

"Oh.....thats very good to hear Himaru-kun. You at this young age is able to perform basic blacksmithing and forging, so you were able to forge from pig irons or from raw ore?"

"Hiko-sama, I am able to identify the ores and I had ever mixed those ores to become iron, steel and copper ingots. I also learnt the art of smelting so it's much faster to forge weapons or tools if the smelted iron or steel was poured into the mould."

"Haa...! Haa...! Haa...! You heard that guy! This boy is a gem in the rough... He would be valuable in our little village and would fit multiple roles in his life later on. So tell me, Himaru-kun, what would you like to do 5 years down the road?"

"I would like to be a level 5 blacksmith, a renowned pill maker, a great alchemist, a superb wizard, a wise mage, an invincible andgreat swordsman and I'd like to earn a gold coin every hour, every day!"

Damn...! Am I asking too much in this series? Back to reality... Sigh...!

"I would like to seek redemption for the ones who perished in my village and seek justice in the path of a Samurai... Hhhhuuaarrgghhh....!"

I hollered at the end of the sentence to make it sound serious enough and flexing my muscles in a kind of Hulk Hogan pose.

"Haa...! Haa...! Haa...! You are full of ambition, young boy... But I like the way you think and the experiences that you got. How come you mention about being a wizard and a mage... Do you dabble with runes and incantations of some sort?"

"I won't be able to show you just yet, Hiko-sama. It would be a spoiler too early in this series and people who read this would already know the plot of the story in the next few 10 chapters or so."

"Hmm, that's right..." as Hiko-sama rubbed his shin when he thought about it. Oh yeah, I forgot to add something, at this moment, nine if the Samurai had removed their helmets and mask yet as they gathered around to listen to my story.

"By the way, we would be travelling for another day after the break of dawn before we reach our village. I am sure you would be of use over there and get accustomed to the culture there quick, you understand, Himaru-kun?"

I nodded in acknowledgement and excused myself to carry on with my collection of the chopped trunks. I bowed slightly to Hiko-sama and was wondering do these people never take off their helmets and face masks when eating or drinking? Or somehow use a straw to suck on their food and drinks through the tiny gaps in place of their masks?

I wonder what Mr. Director was up to in making the lives of the Samurai difficult.