Who: Rey and Xan What: visiting Ancient Japan Where: Ancient Japan When: March 20 Warnings: Low Status: closed/g-doc
Xan didn’t quite know what to expect in ancient Japan. Not like he exactly paid attention in class and they hadn’t covered much Asian history in his high school. But, he hoped that he and Rey would at least have fun.
He met Rey at the portal entrance and greeted her with a quick kiss before they stepped through. Once they did, all Xan could manage was an “OH MY GOD.” Whatever he’d pictured hadn’t done this place justice.
Rey wasn’t sure what to expect much except for what she briefly read when the portal appeared, but she didn’t think pictures or words would be able to do what they saw justice. It was truly breathtaking. “It’s beautiful.”
She looked around, taking it in quietly for a moment or two before she reached out to take Xan’s hand in hers. “I read there are a lot of different traditions and social rules here… I’ll admit to be worried about offending someone.”
Xan held her hand and squeezed it. “It’s almost as beautiful as you, Rey.” Xan looked around. “Well, we could go that way and see what happens? Or look for a shrine?” He also hoped to not cause an issue.
“Or maybe we could check out the onsen? See if there’s a play?” Xan felt overwhelmed by their options.
She smiled with a faint blush on her cheek from the compliment, but it was appreciated. "I like the idea of walking and seeing what comes our way. I've always found that that's really how to experience a place." It was less forced that way.
She picked a direction where the path seemed to be inclining a little. Maybe it made more sense to do it the other way, but Rey was of the opinion easy wasn't always the best adventures.
"I've had sushi in Madison. I don't know if it's something they had in ancient Japan, but if it is, I'd like to try it here."
Suddenly they found themselves in front of a series of Torii gates to the side of their path. Rey looked to Xander. "Shall we see where this leads?"
Xan nodded. “Did you try the sushi during the Cherry Blossom Festival? I’ve never tasted anything as delicious before.” In all honesty, Xan had done nothing but indulge in all of the food offered, plus check out a few classes. While the tea ceremony hadn’t been his thing, he enjoyed the drum and floral arrangement classes.
“Sure!” They meandered for a few minutes, pointing out wild flowers and such to each other. An animal he’d never seen before ran across their path. “Aw. I’ll never see it again, I bet.” Within a few minutes, Xan heard yelling.
“I suppose we should head in that direction, then?”
"I did." Much like Xander, Rey took part in a lot of activities while the Cherry Blossom festival had been in town. She enjoyed learning about new cultures. She also thought it was very interesting that this month there seemed to be a theme.
The yelling pulled her out of her revelry and she nodded, reaching for her lightsaber. Much like she had promised Xander when the dinosaurs happened, she never went to a portal without it now.
They hurried toward the sound when they came to a small village. Rey had never seen a ninja before so she had no context for what she was seeing as she saw several masked men attacking a village with mostly villagers who were defending themselves with farming equipment. "Hey!" Rey shouted to get one of their attentions before taking off.
Xander ran, although he wasn’t quite as fast as Rey. He didn’t mind. They both had their strengths and she happened to run faster than him. At least with his working out in town, he wasn’t too far behind.
He didn’t have a weapon, but Xan could fight if necessary. “I didn’t expect to see ninjas in real life, let alone attacking a village.”
When Rey yelled at them, it seemed to startle everyone for a brief moment, before the attacks resumed. Obviously saving the villagers made the most sense to both Rey and Xan.
“So, how do you want to play this?” He preferred if Rey, with the weapon, made the calls. She had far more battle experience than he did.
Rey let her eyes take in the scene for a moment. "I can keep the people busy. Draw them from me and away from others. If you can lead the villagers to safety?" That seemed like something that would play to both their strengths.
Xan nodded. He breathed in deeply to centre himself and to give Rey a head start. Once she approached the ninjas he quietly moved to where he could see people hiding and taking cover.
Unfortunately, he didn’t speak Japanese and definitely didn’t speak the version of Japanese found in this time period. At least a few people noticed him and he placed a finger to his lips. Not surprisingly, he received more than a few suspicious glances and a few people looked afraid. He crouched down until Rey provided the much needed distraction.
The enemies were fast and nimble and reminded Rey of Jedi which in some respects was actually familiar and humbling. The lightsaber did quick work with their standard steel blades, but there were many of them and only one of Rey so she had to resort to hand-to-hand more than her lightsaber.
While she trusted Xander, she still looked for him from time to time to make sure he was okay. The idea that he could get hurt was vivid in her mind. One such look his wa cost her a sharp kick to the side of her head and she went tumbling off a roof she had ended up on into a pile of hay.
Xander used the preoccupation of the ninjas to start quietly guiding the civilians to the woods. He had no idea where they could go after that, but step one. The people seemed willing to listen as they watched Rey try to take on the ninjas.
“Shit,” Xander felt torn between checking on Rey and helping to finish clearing out the village. Thankfully the ninjas still seemed distracted, so he got the last woman, carrying a toddler, quietly following the others.
Because Rey looked like she could use a breather, Xan ran in the opposite direction of the townsfolk and shouted, “Hey! I’m over here.” And about ten seconds later he immediately regretted his decision.
Rey was making some headway with the ninjas, but there were definitely more of them than her. While she didn’t like it, when Xander drew attention away from her, it gave her a moment to breathe. She only gave herself a moment or two - the absolute bare minimum - before she took off to help her boyfriend who she couldn’t handle if he got hurt. Fighting alongside him, though, even if he wasn’t formally taught or a Jedi, felt nice.
Tired and bruised, eventually the village was quiet after the ninja were either motionless on the ground or had fled. Rey was breathing heavily and while she needed a moment to catch her breath, she made her way over to Xan. “Are you hurt?“
Xan didn’t mind fighting alongside Rey if he had to fight. Like, he kind of thought of his fighting days behind him, but if he was watching his girlfriend’s back? Then he felt okay about it.
Rey kicked absolute ass. Xan had sat down to catch his breath. Even with his running most days, this was a different type of cardio workout. “I’m okay. I think I’ll have a couple bruises. I may need to take a day off of work just from some soreness, but no lasting damage. You?” He kissed Rey, but soft and fast, just because he knew how amazing she was.
“I can heal that in a moment, if you’d like.” She’d need to take a moment to catch her breath, but she hadn’t used a lot of The Force on the attackers. She did give him a nod. “I’m alright… I’ll admit it was nice to have that kind of a fight… even if I wish it hadn’t been with so many innocent people in the way. Did you get them out to safety?” Rey trusted that he did, but she still felt the need to ask.
Xan forgot about Rey’s ability to heal. “Only if it won’t cause you any problems.” He knew how The Force didn’t work for her here like it did back home. “I’m glad you could stretch your fighting muscles.”
He nodded at the question. “Yes. I got them into the woods. I don’t think they trusted me to follow me much further.”
"They trusted you enough. That's something." She gave him a reassuring look with a soft and fond expression. She would be able to heal him since his wounds weren't so great, but they better not run into any angry Sith here.
She pulled out a pouch of coins she had retrieved from the ninja. "I gathered a few of these. Perhaps we take most to the people in the forest and keep a few coins to buy us food and drink after our accomplishment. I think we deserve a relaxing rest of the time here in the portal."
He smiled at the reassurance. “Thank you, Rey.” Xan knew he didn’t need the healing, but he wanted to also not head right back home, so he would accept it.
“Sounds like a good plan to me.” He continued to sit for a minute, just to clear his head. “Ready whenever you are.”