บท 16: Apis and Bokuden

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　Rei laid on the sand with his arms and legs opened wide, he couldn't careless about the heavy storm around and the sand which sticked to his overflowing hair.

　his arms were numb and his legs turns to jelly right after the exhaustion trounced upon him, how could he not? the distance he just covered were almost 80nmi/150km give or take while maintaining his full speed.

　if not for his superior physical ability and huge amount of chakra reserves, there was no doubt both of them needed to swim in order to arrive. Rei currently doesn't feels like moving at the moment, he let the rain water and wind fell on him and yet,

　"lets goo..! lets go to my house! the storm getting bigger here!" yelled the little girl as she tried to pull Rei's sleeve.

　after several pulls, Rei finaly stood up. the girl was right, there was no way he could get good rest in this situation, so he followed her streading the shore and entered the woods.

　'ZAAAAAAASH.....'

　'WHUUUUUUUUUU.....'

　'RRUMMMBBBLEEEE....!'

　the storm were still ongoing, Rei grabbed her tiny hand tightly as to not let her tiny body blown by the wind, the sun already set a few hours ago however Rei could see rather clearly in this kind of dark environment, as for the girl? she seems familiar with the route and sometimes stumbled here and there upon contact with tree roots.

　after some twist and turns, Rei could barely make out the lights coming from several houses behind the tree line, both of them picking up the pace and finaly stepping out of the woods.

　the little girl ran and Rei followed, after passing several houses, the girl stopped at the inconspicuos small house right at the hillside quite far from other houses, the girl opened the house's door and jumped inside. she yelled,

　"GRANDPAAA! I'M BAAACK!"

　there were suddenly noises coming from inside part of the house, it looks like someone was frantically running over several items and made a mess out of it.

　"APIIIIS....!!!" shouted an old man whom coming from inside, the bearded old man dragged his feet forcefully which seemingly not working properly due to his old age.

　the little girl whose name was Apis ran towards him while shedding tears.

　"GRANDPA! I MISSED YOU! WAAAH! SOB* SOB*..." Apis jumped straight towards the old man embrace and began to wailled loudly.

　the old man was also seen shedding some tears while holding her grand daughter tightly, as if it was all an illusion.

　Rei which drenched like a helpless rat could only stay outside of the house tried to befriend the storm, he shook his head while waiting, its rude to just barged in to someone else house, as gentleman he still has some etiquette.

　after Rei counting how many times lightning struck all around him, the old man finaly noticed someone standing at his front door drenched like a rat.

　the old man gestured Apis to stay behind him and yelled,

　"WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT DO YOU WANT HERE?!"

　hearing his grandfather voice, Apis finaly remembered about Rei, which still stood outside in the middle of storm.

　"grandpa! quick let him in! he is the one who saved me!" Apis ran outside and pulled Rei's sleeve so as to welcome him inside.

　seeing Apis reaction, the oldman finaly lowered his suspicion, however when he clearly make out Rei peculiar appearance, he couldn't help but paused slightly, he said to Apis after he closed the door.

　"Apis, go wash up! you'll get cold at this rate."

　Apis nodded and skipping inside one of the room.

　after making sure Apis heeds his word, the oldman turned his attention back towards Rei with questioning gaze,

　"...and you?"

　Rei answered simply while he squished his white hakama dry, "my name is Rei, old man..."

　"Rei? my name is Bokuden, i'm Apis grandfather, would you please tell me what happened? Apis was gone since 2 days ago, i was so worried about her." there was a sadness tone coming from his old voice, as he recalled going here and there looking for her missing grand daughter, god knows how desperate him at those moment.

　seeing how drenched Rei realy was, Bokuden sighed and took a towel from another room, he gave the towel and gestured towards Rei to came closer towards the burning stove in one corner of the room.

　'CRAAAACK....!'

　'RRRUMMMBBLLEEEE....!'

　the storm still raging outside, seeing the storm wouldn't subside soon, Rei could only chose to stay. Rei sighed and came closer, Bokuden gave a stool for him to sit down which Rei gave his thanks.

　after Rei wiped his upper body with the towel, he put his white hakama close to the burning stove. then he noticed Bokuden gave him a bowl of piping hot soup, he smiled and took the bowl from Bokuden's hand with thanks.

　Bokuden still feels giddy with Rei appearance, tall man with white skin, white long-waist hair, and beautiful silvery eyes of him. and yet what his attention focused the most was two small horns protruding out of his forehead. those horns seems awaken Bokuden memories of something from the past.

　after a brief of silence, Rei opened his mouth to tell Bokuden about what had happened, it wasn't quite detailed, yet Bokuden could get the gists out of it.

　words couldn't help Bokuden gratitudes towards Rei. while hearing Rei's stories, he continously bowed and said his thanks which Rei calmly accepted several times until Rei felt it was too much and began to stop him from bowing any further.

　in the middle of Rei's storytelling, Apis came out feeling refreshed after taking a bath and changing her tattered clothes, Bokuden also gave her a bowl with hot soup. seeing Apis eating besides him, Bokuden couldn't help but wiped away his tears of gratitude once more, he stroke Apis head gently full of love.

　"...well, thats all about it old man..." Rei finished his stories and took a sip of warm water.

　Bokuden noded whIle stroking Apis head lovingly on his lap, the little girl was so exhausted after a day long journey, god knows how could a little girl like her experienced something outside of her age.

　after finishing her soup, Apis finaly couldn't held on any longer and fell asleep on Bokuden's lap.

　"Rei, was it? i realy thank you from the bottom of my heart once again, i know i can't repay what you had done to my little Apis, but please accept my deepest gratitude!" said Bokuden and bowing his head once more.

　Rei was too tired to stoped him from bowing again, and he finaly asked,

　"after hearing my story, do you have any idea why the marines wants to capture Apis?"

　Bokuden sighed as he slumped back, after a few moments he shook his head slightly,

　"i don't know exactly, but maybe its related to the legend known in this water..." said Bokuden.

　Rei was in fact knew about the stories, right now he was inside the little girl and the old dragon arc from OnePiece filler episodes, he just asked because of curiousity and feeling excited to follow through such story by himself in flesh.

　Rei pricked his ears and asked,

　"legend? legend about dragon?"

　Bokuden didn't answers him immediately, he carried Apis inside the bedroom and laid her there while covering her with blanket, when he returned he began to tell Rei a story.

　the legend said about thousand years dragon nesting place, he went on about the 'Lost Island' and how it birthed the legend about 'Elixir of Immortality',

　at first Rei attention was captured by the fascinating story Bokuden had told, how the Dragon would returns once in thousand years for nesting, and how the 'Lost Island' would showed up within those time and so on.

　however Rei soon began to feel light headed as Bokuden suddenly change the topic to the story about the people once living on Lost Island, from the first king and goes on and on and on, until Bokuden himself fell asleep defeated by his own boring story.

　Rei was speechless as he saw the old man slumped back on his chair while snoring hard.

　noticing a blanket besides Bokuden chair, Rei stood up and took it, he then proceed to cover the old man with it.

　Rei walked slowly towards the window, all he could see was the storm raging outside. after a few moments he sighed and sat on the floor with wall behind him, he rested his head on the wall seeing the burning stove fire dancing beautifully.

　Rei silvery eyes captured the fire dancing about, only the storm sounds could be heard inside the house accompanying him as he lost himself in reverie.

　slowly Rei felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier until finaly he finished his day-long journey by falling asleep in peace.

〜〜〜〜〜

　morning...

　the storm finaly passed and morning dew could be seen shining on the leaves outside, several birds singing happily welcoming the day.

　Rei open his eyes slowly awoken from his slumber, a blanket fell down from his body making a little smile appeared on his fair face.

　'tap, tap, tap, tap....'

　Rei heard a small footsteps coming closer, he stood up slowly as he noticed a unique smell of food coming from the table, he saw Apis was busy preparing meals.

　Apis noticed Rei had awoken from the corner of her eyes, she smiled towards the now stretching Rei and said,

　"you're awake? there's grandpa clothes on the table, you can wash up in the back!"

　Rei noticed his body which currently bare chested, his fine muscles sculpted nicely making him looks lean when he had clothes on, rested on the table he saw a unique turqoise colored long dress and cream loose pants, the style was similiar to the one Bokuden used yesterday.

　"why you just standing still? hurry change your clothes, i already washed your clothes this morning, all thats left is your pants and that belt?" said Apis feeling unsure, she asked about the big purple rope belt which Rei currently use.

　"ah this? yes, this is belt..." answered Rei pointing towards his rope belt,

　"how weird, anyway hurry wash up! after that lets eat."

　Apis turned around to take out more food from the kitchen leaving the smiling Rei behind. Rei shook his head, he took the set of clothes and headed outside, at the outside he took morning breath deeply first, right after he headed towards the back of the house.

　in a few steps, Rei found a well there, and began to washed his body clean using the water from the well. after he had done, he found a small room intended to changing clothes besides the well.

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