The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 3: Little Discoveries

"How does I... nein, 'do I'." Axel was much better after three weeks of having Japanese as the only option if he wanted to be understood, but some points still tripped him up since he wasn't familiar with every word or conjugation. "How do I get to Tokyo from here?"

Kichirou glanced up from the groceries he had been considering, looking very much like he had just been reminded of something. "Do you mean Konoha?" he asked, vaguely gesturing with an eggplant in what was presumably the right direction. "That's the largest city east of here."

Axel hadn't known that the fictional hidden village from Naruto had a real-life counterpart, but at least it sounded large enough to have trains or a phone or something. He just settled with an uncertain nod and wondered how frequently the local kids—who he had seen running around playing ninja nearly everyday—bugged parents to let them visit. "Uh... Yes? Maybe?"

"Are you from Konoha? You don't talk about yourself very much." The teen dropped the purple vegetable into the bag Axel was carrying for him, moving over to look at the cabbages. Picking one up, Kichirou checked to see if it had any rotten bits; a few, but better than some of the others so he handed it over as well.

"What? No, no, I'm from München. You know, Munich. In Deutschland." At Kichirou's blank look, he tried, "Germany? ...Doitsu?"

"Sure, whatever." The teen shrugged, tone making it clear that he wasn't really following his blond friend anymore. Instead he just held up a radish for Axel to help inspect. "Does this look good to you? I'm not sure about this bit here."

Since he didn't know much about telling ripe vegetables from one-day-till-compost, Axel couldn't say for sure the discoloration wasn't a sign of rot or something. He took it and gave the questionable spot a poke. It didn't feel gooey, which was a good sign, so he added it to their groceries.

Despite the bags being uncomfortably full by this point, Kichirou seemed determined to stuff in a few more veggies. He had a tendency to over-pack, something Axel had noticed on a previous grocery run when the teen had spent several minutes rearranging things for maximum food-to-bag density.

After packing in as much food as possible, they finally made their way to the counter to pay. It was really lucky that the blacksmith family had been kind enough to temporarily take him in; he had no money worth anything here. In fact, he had exactly €2,35 and not a cent more. He hadn't so much as seen any yen since waking up at the clinic, since he had stored what he had left in his checked bag to avoid carrying unnecessary coins through security. Interestingly enough, he hadn't seen any card readers either. So while he didn't enjoy feeling like a charity case, until he could find an ATM or something he was stuck on that point.

They spent a brief moment debating who would carry most of the bags back, as seemed to happen at the end of every shopping trip. And, just like those other times, Axel was ultimately left with one mostly-empty bag: it held only a single cabbage. The other things it had held had been carefully (and impressively) tetrised to the rest of the bags that Kichirou had insisted on carrying himself. Apparently, having just been released from the clinic, Axel was just too fragile to be trusted with heavy groceries for the trip back home.

Axel shook his head and gave the overly-concerned teen half an eye roll, but otherwise just went along with it.

"Anyway, Konoha's about a day's walk away," Kichirou continued from the first question, one hand loaded down with all the bags as he led the way back to his house. "Or at least, it is when we're bringing in things to sell. There're plenty of signs at crossroads for merchants and travelers, so I wouldn't worry about getting lost."

Axel snorted, the terms reminding him of fantasy stories and the medieval fairs his college club had taken trips to visit whenever classes had allowed.