Side Story: Meeting the Princess 1

Sakamo Ryu was visiting a Shrine in Tokyo following the advice of his adoptive father, Sakamo Yahei, to see the Capital and find out if he could adapt to a life there while studying in High School.
As he was walking along the sidewalk of one of the several busy streets, he stopped near the gate of a Private Only Girl’s Elementary School, wondering why the need for a separation of genders so early. A girl’s scream made him look back in surprise, and he saw a big man in a dark blue suit, dragging a little girl who was kicking and fighting to get free.

Sakamo frowned as he heard the girl say, “Let me go! Stop grabbing me, you scoundrel! Help! A pervert is grabbing me!”

He approached and stood in their way. The man looked down at him as Sakamo asked, “What are you trying to do to this little girl?”

“It’s none of your business! Step aside!”

Sakamo didn’t bulge and asked the screaming girl, “Do you need help to get rid of him?”

The girl screamed at Sakamo while crying, “Are you stupid? Do I look like I am enjoying this? He is hurting me! My wrist is going to break!”

Sakamo clenched his fists and looked up at the man who had almost doubled his size. “If you let her go this instant, I won’t be forced to hurt you.”

The man tried to push Sakamo away while shouting, “I said step aside…”

He grabbed the man’s left hand that was reaching out towards him and twisted it, making him put a knee on the ground. Sakamo then kicked his groins, and as the man bowed his head in pain, he let the girl go, which Sakamo took advantage of by kicking the left side of his temple, knocking him out instantly.

A loud shout made Sakamo turn to his left, as another man dressed in the same way was getting out of a car parked nearby. “Hey, what are you doing?”

Sakamo frowned and asked the girl, “A friend of this guy?”

When the girl nodded with her red face and tears in her eyes, Sakamo ran to the man and kicked the car door, crushing the man’s right hand between the door and the frame. A series of punches to his stomach to lower his size, and a final and powerful right uppercut with the elbow hit the man’s chin, knocking him out completely.

He then went to the girl, who was seated on the floor with a surprised look and tears running down her face, and gently touched her right shoulder. “You are safe now. Are you a student at this School? It’s better if you go inside, you will be safe there. What did those guys want from you, anyway?”

The girl cleaned her eyes and stood up while holding Sakamo’s hand. She bit her lower lip, thinking in silence for a while, and then vigorously shook her head. “I don’t know, but I don’t want to go to School! Not looking like this! My hair is a mess, and I probably look horrible!”

Sakamo took a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaned the little girl’s face and tried to fix her hair. “I understand. You indeed seem too nervous. What do you say if we get out of here before some of their friends arrive?”

The girl made a big smile and pulled him while running. After a few blocks, she stopped, caught her breath, and asked, “Uff… Uff… I think we can stop… for a while… that was scary. Who are you, anyway? And where did you learn how to fight like that?”

“I was raised in a Shrine in Nakanojo, and Martial Arts were part of my training. Where do you live? I can escort you there to make sure you don’t get into danger again.”

The girl looked at Sakamo and made a slight smile, trying to look calm but still trembling. “I... you know... Perhaps you could stay with me for a while. I need to calm down, because I can’t go home looking like this, or my parents will be worried.”

“I guess I can be with you for as much time as you need. I have nothing planned. I am sightseeing.”

The girl gave a big smile. “Nice, I can be your guide, then! I know a beautiful park where we can walk for a while! There is also an amusement park that I have wanted to go to for so long. Maybe you can take me there!”

“Sure, I think that would be fun.”

The little girl grabbed Sakamo’s right hand and pulled him along the side-walk. “The park is this way. There is a pond with koi fish and ducks! I was told that we could even buy some old bread to feed them! I have little money with me, but I think I have enough money for bread!”

“I don’t have much money either, but I can pay for a few rides in that amusement park if you buy the bread for the ducks, and we share the cost of our food when we get hungry.”

“Alright, let’s go then! To the park!”

Sakamo laughed while being pulled by the overly excited little girl. “To the park! Heheheh!”

She pulled Sakamo by his right hand, feeling her heart pumping. That boy was gorgeous, and her little maiden heart was finding it difficult to keep on beating while so near him.
They spent most of the morning in the park, walking, talking, and enjoying the sun and open air. The little girl rushed to the selling lady to buy the old bread and pulled Sakamo to the pond, where she laughed at the way the ducks kept on avoiding Sakamo’s bread, going to hers instead, as if they were afraid of his long braid and frowned eyebrows.
At around noon, they bought some small boxes of food and sat on a bench in the shadow of a tree.

The little girl kept on smiling while eating, and Sakamo remembered something. “You know, we are having a great time, but I still don’t know your name. I am Sakamo Ryu. And you?”

“Ryu-kun... Such a pretty name… You can call me Hiko-chan!”

“So, Hiko-chan, why have you never come to this park or the amusement park?”

She stopped her chopsticks midway and asked, “Why do you think I never came to this park? Or to an amusement park?”

“I don’t know, probably by the way you smiled so much while feeding the ducks, or by the way your eyes were glowing when I agreed to go to the amusement park. Why did your parents never take you here?”

Hiko turned bright red and answered while looking at her food, “They… work a lot. It’s kind of hard to find the time to do those kinds of things…”

“What things would prevent them from having fun with their family? That doesn’t sound right to me.”

“Yeah… you are right…”

Sakamo noticed how sad Hiko looked, and immediately regretted having said such a tactless thing. She probably had some special circumstances that kept her away from her family.

He took his and her empty boxes and threw them into the trash bin nearby, then pulled her up from the bench with a slight smile. “What about if we walked some more before going to the amusement park? Or we could feel sick on one of those rides and throw up this lunch!”

“Yeah, that would be a waste! Let’s go then. I want to see the ducks again! Maybe some of them will approach you if you try to smile at them.”

They followed the path to the pond, with the little girl still holding Sakamo’s hand and smiling the entire way.
After throwing a few crumbs to the ducks and the koi fishes, she pulled him to one exit of the park, and they walked on the side-walk, stopping now and then to look at the window of a shop. Sakamo noticed a few police cars driving on the streets with the sirens on, and the little girl always called him to look at a window when a police car went by or pulled Sakamo inside a shop when a police officer appeared on the side-walk.

When they finally arrived at the amusement park, the little girl pointed to a boat that was on a small river channel that went into a dark fibreglass mountain. “What about if we started with a ride in there? I think it’s completely dark inside, and there are ghosts and skeletons! You can hold my hand if you get scared!”

“And a little girl like you won’t be scared? Skeletons and ghosts are pretty scary! You don’t prefer a ride in another thing, like… that one, for instance?”

Hiko looked to where Sakamo was pointing and frowned at the sight of a carriage pulled by ponies that were tied to a pole and walked in circles around it. “That’s for little kids! I am almost thirteen! I am already a young lady! I had my first period last year! I can even have babies now, you know?”

She then turned bright red and covered her face with both hands. “Can you… pretend I didn’t say that? I feel so ashamed…”

Sakamo made a slight smile and gently took her hands away. “You don’t have to be ashamed. The ability to create life is an incredible gift the Gods have bestowed upon you. Let’s go on the scary ride then, and I will try not to scream in fear. After that one, we can look around and choose another ride, a cheap one, or I won’t have the money for it.”

“Yeah… That boat is a little too much, but I want to go with you… I have a few coins, and if we put our money together, I think we will have enough for another ride, a medium-priced one, at least.”

He went to the first boat with Hiko, enjoying the surrounding view, totally unaware of her true intentions. She wanted to be near him in a boat, with darkness all around them.
As the boat moved, another couple entered the boat after them, and Hiko saw the way the girl was smiling at the boy next to her, with her eyes shining. Hiko felt her chest squeezing, thinking that she probably looked like that, side by side with that beautiful, long-braided boy. When the boat entered the darkness, she approached Sakamo and leaned her head against his shoulder, enjoying his warmth, and screamed when a skeleton fell from the ceiling, right in front of them, with lights turning on and pointing at it. Sakamo laughed, and he almost jumped when a person inside a white sheet touched his arm with icy fingers. That was the cue for Hiko to laugh at Sakamo’s expense.

They kept on screaming and laughing every time one of them got a scare, and when the boat stood still for a few minutes in complete darkness, Hiko asked, “Ryu-kun… do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, I don’t have one. I never had the time or opportunity to get one! What about you? I bet that with your pretty smile and contagious laughter, you have many boys after you!”

“No… not really. Most of the boys are afraid of getting near me, or don’t want to deal with me… Yeah, it’s a little strange, I know.”

Sakamo gently bumped his head against hers. “Don’t worry about boyfriends, you are still young. You have a lot of time to get in trouble because of a boy!”

Hiko smiled in the darkness, thinking that she wouldn’t mind getting in trouble with him. She felt her face becoming hot and thanked the darkness because Sakamo Ryu couldn’t see. When the boat started moving again, there were a few more screams, and as the boat exited and stopped in the dock, they got out and went in search of another ride they could pay for.
After getting out of the bumping cars, Hiko looked at the clock on a pole and said that it would be better to go home, or her parents would be worried if she didn’t arrive at her usual time.
Sakamo went with her, laughing while talking about the scares they both got in the boat inside the mountain.