Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter Twenty-Three - Five Ounce Bird/One Pound Coconut

"Wow, Katsuko. You're actually cute, like a real girl – oof!" Yuki turned to glare at Sasuke who had elbowed him. "What?! She is."

"I agree with the sentiment, though not the wording," Sasuke said. He was regarding me, well, scientifically, so maybe his operating system was checking my appearance against the 'real girl' matrix.

I waved both statements away. "Mai and Yoshimoto ambushed me." Ok... how should I bring this up? If Sasuke truly was a time traveler, did Yuki know? What if I was wrong? Maybe he'd just found the glasses somewhere. Was there a way to ask him without coming across as insane? "While I was with them, something occurred to me, something I guess I never noticed before... oh, I mean, I did notice, but the implication didn't hit me until now because of the full-frontal distraction, but..."

Yikes. Speaking of operating systems, difficult conversation.exe was failing to load.

Sasuke sighed. "Word vomit again." He looked along the puddle dotted walkway, then out toward the courtyard, the torrential downpour drowned the benches. There was even standing water in the zen garden, where a mini-flood had overwhelmed the sand underneath. No zen on this newly formed pond unless the ripples from the raindrops counted. "I hope I don't need to sit down for this?"

"Well, probably not. It's a question, actually, but-" I glanced at Yukimura. "It might be related to some sensitive information ... maybe I should ask in private." Yuki had trouble with the concept of 'girl.' I couldn't imagine how he would deal with the concept of 'girl born 450 years from now is standing in front of you, and oh by the way, your best friend also won't be born for another 450 years either.'

"Hey!" Yukimura scowled at me. "Sasuke and I share our sensitive stuff all the time."

With a wince, Sasuke patted Yuki's shoulder. "Again. Agree with the sentiment, but not the wording. Whatever it is, I don't mind Yuki hearing."

Uhhhh.

The blunt question, 'are you a time traveler' stuck in my throat. I couldn't risk an over-the-top response from Yukimura. Better to ask indirectly. If Sasuke was what I thought he was, he would understand, and if not, he would shrug it off as a weird question. But it was a question that any modern nerd would know the answer to, and I realized that Sasuke had a strong layer of nerd under that ninja mask. "Sasuke... what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

"African or Euro-" was his automatic response, before his eyes got wide behind those plastic frames. "When?"

I wanted to hug him in relief. "Which when? Do you mean, when did I leave, or when did I arrive?"

Yuki's head ping-ponged between the two of us. "What am I missing?"

Sasuke ignored him. "Both."

I reeled off the date that Toshiie and I had gone up to the Togakushi Shrine to argue about my freerunning risk taking. "When we arrived here it was late 1575. The twelfth month... December," I amended, knowing that Sasuke would be familiar with the Gregorian calendar.

He seemed to be doing math in his head. Wait, of course he was doing math in his head. "Ok, so you left ..." he glanced at Yuki "your village about the time I started researching temporal anomalies, but I hadn't pinpointed any yet-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yuki interrupted. "Temple abnormalities? Is this about the Ikkō-ikki?"

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's a long story that I will try to explain later– Yuki, please get Mai and tell her to meet us in my room."