A/N: I feel the need to update to release steam THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS BY THE WAY!!...it's been absolutely stressful lately, for both my internet jobs and school...enjoy!xD and ciAo...
The Epic Journey-Kino's Journey
Chapter Two
"Kino," rasped an old motherly voice. "I've been waiting for you to come."
The brunette smiled to herself. She didn't bother to ask how this old woman in the house at the end of the Beautiful World knew her name. She figured she knew the names of everyone who was about to come here. Kino just wondered why she herself took so long in coming.
"Well, the wait is over," the young traveler replied lamely.
"Yes. The wait is over."
This incredible petite old woman was barely as tall as Kino. She considered the girl with her wrinkled, unseeing eyes before shuffling about her house which comprised mostly of the kitchen. A boiling kettle was on the stove.
"Bring Hermes in, will you?" she told the brunette. "He can fit through the door."
Kino did as she was told. Soon, the pair stood on the threshold waiting awkwardly as they watched the old woman bustle about.
"Sit! Sit!" she said when she caught a glimpse of them. "Do make yourselves at home! I'm quite sure mine is the first house you've seen in weeks."
If Hermes had eyes instead of a headlight, they would've widened.
"How does she—" began the motorrad but his partner nudged him.
"Well I should know by now," the old woman answered him anyway, setting down tea on the table. "After many years of doing this every now and then I should have mastered how things work."
Hermes felt abashed for asking. So he thanked her quietly for the refreshments that were served.
The three sat down and ate in silence for some minutes.
"Aren't you going to ask what more there is to the world and where it is? Those who have gone before you were in a great hurry..." said the old woman.
Kino shook her head and set down the teacup she had been drinking. "Not really, grandmother. We aren't in a hurry."
The old woman made a huge fuss.
"Oh don't call me grandmother! It's too formal and embarrassing. Call me oba-chan..."
"Yes, oba-chan," Kino continued. "We'd like to go somewhere else that's more than more, though. Could you tell us where THAT is?"
Hermes was thoroughly puzzled now. "There's such a thing as more than more? What more more could there be? Can't we check out the more first?"
The young traveler patted his leather seat. "The more is where everyone goes to. I'd like to go somewhere else that's different..."
The pair turned to Grandmother who was silent and thoughtful.
"I can take you there," she began softly and slowly. "But only a handful choose that path. Are you sure of this, Kino?"
"Positive."
The motor bike looked to and fro between the two women as if he were watching a tennis match. He was quite nervous as to where the conversation was leading to.
The old woman seemed very happy at the brunette's answer. "Come with me. You need to be prepared!"
--
"Mmm! It's really good gas, oba-chan!"
Hermes, Kino and the grandmother were in the latter's shed out back. It was quite neat and clean compared to the rest of her abode. A curious collection of odds and ends nealty lined the shelves. Shiny metal drums of what seemed to be different kinds of fuel, scrubbed wooden boxes filled with tools needed to fix all types of transportation and a desk decked with stacks of molding paper lined the walls.
The old lady put her hands on her hips and she studied the motorrad with a smile.
"Now you, Kino..." she said. "You've got to lighten your load. You and Hermes wouldn't be able to travel properly if you have so many things with you. Besides, you don't need them where you'll be going."
The brunette was quite reluctant to see her trusty baggage unbuckled from its usual place behind the leather seat. But she could not find the words to express her concern.
"Anything that would have sentimental value there?" the grandmother asked before she could say a word.
"No oba-chan, except..."
Kino took out a dirty pouch containing a pack of wrinkled tree seeds and a letter.
"...this," she said and held it up before stowing it away in the depths of her coat.
The grandmother nodded. "Is your Persuader with you? Have you gotten enough ammunition?"
"Yes oba-chan."
"Good. There's one more thing you need before you're ready to go..."
The old woman turned her back on the waiting pair, who exchanged looks.
"I feel clean, Kino." Hermes said happily. "It's as if I can run to eternity and beyond!"
Kino chuckled. "I think infinity and beyond sounds better, but I feel the same way too...now that we aren't carry much stuff."
"Ah, here we are!"
The grandmother had returned with a worn-looking compass in her hand.
"This will tell you where more than more is."
The young traveler looked at the ancient device and saw that it had no hands. She decided not to question it and took the thing.
Storm brown eyes widened slightly as a tingling sensation coursed through her body, as if the compass felt jubilant at their union, making a promise that it would be entirely her own.
"Let's go, Hermes..."
--
"Uh, how exactly are we going to do that?" asked the motorrad.
The pair faced the everlasting sunset. Grandmother's house was already well away; they had no further goodbyes.
"I don't know." Kino said bluntly as she mounted him.
In her hand, she turned the compass over and over. "Oba-chan said this compass should tell us the way."
"How?" Hermes asked again. "Did she tell you how to use it?"
"No..."
"Then how—"
"Let's ride a bit, we'll figure this out..."
The two of them rode with painstaking slowness. The motorrad's engine wasn't even running.
"Oba-chan is very nice," Hermes said conversationally "She makes you feel good. Do you feel good?"
"I feel good," was the sincere but somewhat absent reply.
"But she has magic I tell you..." her partner continued. "From the very start I could tell that she's a sort of witch that can make you transport—"
"I've got it!" Kino exclaimed. "Remember the pact that you and I made about traveling together when I first got you?"
"Of course," he was taken aback at the outburst. "Why?"
"Well, trust me on this, okay?" answered the brunette. "This might hurt a bit..."
And with bruising force, Kino slammed the compass down on Hermes' oil tank and he cried out.
In a brilliant flash, the small device fused with the metal expanse, and she saw it. The compass face sprouted one hand that was pointing stiff as a rod to the north.
"That wasn't very ni—"
"We're heading north, Hermes." was the smiling interjection.
Never had the young traveler experienced such a moment of exaltation. She stomped her foot down hard on the pedal and the motorrad's engine sprung majestically to life.
"Fly Herms!"
Her partner had been waiting for ages her to say such a thing. When she did, he gave it his all.
They were traveling toward the sun, seemingly like a couple of freed birds...except that they raced alongside the speed of light.
The old grandmother watched Kino and Hermes disappear far off at a distance. A tiny twinkle in the vast expanse of the bright star she had always seen told her that the two finally ceased to exist in the Beautiful World.
END
A/N: First stop...Yu-Gi-Oh! The next journey is entitled Ramshackle Matchmakers. Watch out for it! ...enjoy!xD and ciAo...