The Tale Of An Utterly Old Lady. [Jiraiya x OC]

Chapter 1 | I Don't Want to be an Old Lady

Chapter 1 | I Don't Want to be an Old Lady

On the day I'd found myself in Hamaguri no Sato, confusion and fear pushed me to make the decision of drowning myself in an attempt to "wake up." Fortunately, one of the fishermen—a man in his sixties or so—pulled me out the water and brought me back to his home. There lived the only person in his family: his daughter who was about 20 years older than I was.

Her name was Umika, and she was a lady with striking red hair that cascaded down past her shoulders though it was usually tied into a bun. Her eyes were a dark brown, and she had a presence to her that demanded respect and attention—in addition to her very noticeable hair. She worked as a medic in the only clinic in the village.

On the other hand, the old man—Usumi-jiisan—had graying hair that was kept short and trimmed. His eyes were the same color as his daughter's, and despite his wrinkly face and small frame, he had a youthfulness to him that could brighten your day. Still energetic, Usumi-jiisan earned his keep through fishing.

They took me in after finding out I didn't have family in the village, and there began my new life.

But I desperately missed my old life.

Day after day I would cry at night because even as time passed, I had no clue how and why I ended up there.

I was so used to a cyclic life of waking up, going to school, doing homework, then going to sleep and then so on, that I felt as if I could never adjust to the drastic change I was forced to experience. I'd also realized that I had somehow gotten to a place that had none of the modern technology I was familiar with and wondered where in the globe I could possibly be.

When Umika-san told me hers and her father's names, I thought nothing much of it. I knew they weren't typically what you'd find in America, but it's not unlikely to find unique names. Besides I figured I may not even be in America, what with the lack of knowledge about technology. People simply scratched their heads in confusion when I asked about cellphones and other technology. Where in the world would people have no idea what cellphones are? Shouldn't it be international knowledge?

When I realized that signs around the town were written only in Japanese, it confused me even more.

Was I in some place in Japan?

I hadn't a clue.

There was also the fact that they didn't seem to be speaking in Japanese at all—neither English—or at least that was how I heard it. I wasn't sure why I could understand or read anything either—it was as if I was born and raised there. Everything was confusing, so to save my smooth brain from having to think about it, I ended up dismissing it all as my mind being weird like always (which should've been a cause for alarm but considering that I had my mind filled with the terror of being left in some unfamiliar village, I couldn't blame myself for losing some rationality).

It was even stranger that the people in the village all had somewhat ambiguous features—perhaps some of them looked Asian, but it wasn't super clear. There was also Umika-san's hair—a prominent color that I'd never seen in my old life. The red-haired people I'd met before possessed hair that had more of an orange-y color rather than the complete red that was Umika-san's.

I did wonder if it was dyed before, but it soon became clear that it was her true hair color.

On the other hand, the other villagers all seemed to have normal hair, which made me wonder what exactly was unique about Umika-san.