This story is part of the Wanderer series.
“Ah! I’m stuffed.”
With a clank, the pink-haired girl sets down her arms, jabbing the ends of her utensils onto the table, and breathes a happy sigh, eyes closed and slanted down with happiness.
“I was really hungry!”
Yuka chuckles. “A home-made special.”
The girl immediately brings up her arms again, beaming at her bowl as she digs straight in to finish it off. “I never ate anything like this before.”
Yuka’s smile lightens to one with curiosity. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Nope. We travel around the continent all the time.”
Sat next to her, Rin briefly pauses as she bent forward for a spoonful, slightly raising her eyes in the girl’s direction. This statement caught Yuka’s attention as well.
Scrapping her bowl clean, the girl sets down her spoon and fork on the table. Pushing away from the table, she springs up, scraping the chair behind her as she turns towards the door.
“Thanks for the food!”
Rin quickly straightens and grabs the back of the girl’s shirt right below the collar with her left arm. “Hey, hey! Where are you going?”
“Rin—”
“Eh?!” The girl almost flips backwards, flailing a leg and bringing a hand up to her collar. “I’m going back outside!”
“Just a minute!” Rin scolds. “You still have a few questions to answer first!”
The girl stopped pulling, slouching down and turning her head, eyes perking up. “A few questions?”
As Rin pulls her back down to sit, Yuka takes the girl’s bowl back to the stove and scoops more porridge for her.
“We? Who else travels with you?”
“Sen!” she beams.
“Thousand?”
She nods rigorously. “Yes! She’s super wise!”
Rin quickly realizes the girl was referring to a person, slacking her grip on the girl’s shirt. “Oh, a name.”
Yuka sets down another bowl of porridge in front of the girl. “Is… she your mother?”
Cupping the bowl with both hands and accepting it, the girl shakes her head. “Mm-nn, I’ve never met my parents. Sen takes care of me.”
Rin blinks, eyes becoming distant, her hand falling to let go of the girl’s shirt. She doesn’t seem to notice, drawing the bowl towards her and picking up her spoon again.
“I see. Do you know where she is right now?”
The girl raises her eyes, drawing in her lips as she ponders. “Hmm. I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since last night.”
Focusing back on the food, the girl dips down her head to blow steam from her porridge in a very inefficient, almost playful manner. Sitting back in her chair, Yuka pinches her brows, eyes wavering. Rin’s concern grew with hers as she blankly stared down at the table, staying silent.
The girl lifts her face again as if a spark lit her mind. “Did Sen drop me here?” Then, she leans forward and smiles. “Are you Sen’s friends?”
Yuka is taken aback. “N-no… We… don’t know her.”
She withdraws to her porridge again, unphased by the awkward interaction. “Strange. She doesn’t like to leave me with strangers.”
Clinking her ceramic spoon at the bottom of her bowl over and over, the girl ate her porridge just as quickly as before, seemingly forgetting the other occupants at the table. This time, Rin and Yuka simply watch her eat, not touching their own bowls. After some silence, Yuka straightens up once more.
“So… When you travel, you’re usually with Sen?”
Perking up, the girl excitedly replies, “Yes! We travel the continent in a flying castle!”
Rin responds with a mocking, dismissive tone. “Hehhh…? This is not the time for jokes!”
“It’s true!” The girl drops her spoon on the ledge of her bowl and spreads out her arms. “We live in a huge flying castle! It has a garden and everything!”
This is not convincing enough for Rin. “If you arrived on such a thing, everyone would’ve noticed it.”
The girl shakes her head. “The castle is protected by a special cloak that hides it from people below.”
“Right…” Scoffing, Rin rolls her eyes. “How convenient.”
For once, the girl picks up on the context and gets puffy-cheeked. “I’m not lying!”
Rin snarks back. “I don’t believe it!”
“It’s true!”
“Now, now…” Yuka intervenes. “In any case, we should find Sen, as I’m sure she’s missing you. Do you know where she might be?”
Promptly shedding her pout, the girl thinks for a moment. “Well, Sen says I should stay where I am if I lose her. But she’s never left me alone on the surface world…”
Yuka’s concern grows again just as the girl perks up excitedly, a glimmer flaring in her eyes as the corners of her mouth spread outwards. In a flash, she swings her legs out of her seat and heads towards the door again. However, she isn’t quick enough as Rin was ready.
Throwing out her arm from her lap, Rin quickly grabs her by the shirt again. “Hold on a minute! You just said she told you to stay put!”
She screeches to a halt, struggling this time as she still tries to get to the door. “But…! Well… It’ll be faster if I go find her! Let me go!”
As the girl wriggles around, Rin is forced to get out of her seat a little, palming the table with her right hand and pivoting out a leg from under the table as she is pulled forward. “You don’t listen to instructions, do you? You’re staying here until we find Sen!”
Getting up from the table, Rin kicks her chair back with one foot and leverages her full strength against the girl, easily pulling her back as her shirt constricts her neck. Rin then moves towards the stairs, dragging the girl behind her while she repeatedly flails her feet and whines, “Let me go! Let me go!”
Yuka is left speechless at the table, listening to the two clamor up the stairs, the voices becoming muffled. Eventually, she hears Rin shout for the girl to stop flailing around, followed by a soft thud on the floor above. A door slams soon after, leaving her in silence again. Dipping her head down, she reaches for her teacup, slightly giggling to her own amusement as she takes a sip.
Rin marches back down the stairs, grumbling as she returns to the table. “What a pain…”
Yuka ducks her head down a bit and smiles as Rin pulls her chair forward and sits down.
“W-what…?” Rin murmurs, noticing her amusement. “What’s so funny?”
Yuka lifts her head, a strand of her long, smooth hair falling down from her shoulder. “Listen to instructions, huh? What a strange thing for you to say.”
With a silent exclamation, Rin reflects on the words with embarrassment, but eventually smiles, avoiding her guardian’s gaze. “Well…”
“You used to be that way when you were younger.”
“That was back then…!” she quickly retorted. “That girl is the same age as me. She has no excuse!”
Abruptly, she reaches for her cup and takes a sip of her tea, trying to alleviate attention from herself. Yuka stares off towards the stairs.
“Probably. She could be younger. There’s still a lot we don’t know.”
Rin opens her eyes and looks down as she drinks, lowering her cup and relaxing her brows. She calms down to mull in silence with her guardian.
“It’s a bit worrying if her guardian never leaves her alone, and now here she is.”
Rin sets down her cup. “I guess that is a little strange… But we might be overthinking it. She exaggerates a lot.”
Yuka rests her elbow on the table, palms her chin, and stares out the window into the streets. “I hope you’re right.” After a few moments of silence, she lifts her head. “Oh, we forgot to ask her name, didn’t we?”
“Ah… Well, we’ll learn soon— enough—”
As Rin spoke, the two of them heard several distinct thumps on the roof above.